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^

THE PEIMITIVE INHABITANTS

SCANDINAVIA.

PRINTRD BY HrOTT I HW OO DR /.5n CO.
XrW-STRKET RQl-ARR

^>'^V'> '-" '

THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS

SCANDINAVIA.

AN BSSAY OK COMPABATIVB

ETHNOGRAPHY, AND A CONTRIBUTION TO

THE HISTORY OP THE DEVELOPMENT OP MANKIND:

CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OP THE IMPLEMENTS, DWELLINGS,

TOMBS, AND MODE OP LIVING OF THE SAVAGES

IN THE NORTH OP EUROPE DURING

THE STONE AGE.

BY SVEN NILSSON.

THIRD EDITION,

RKTTSED BY THB AUTHOB, AKD TRANSLATED FROM HIS CWX MANUSCRIPT.

EDITED, AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, Babt. F.E.S. &c.

LONDON :

LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO.

1868.

T ■ I '.i o u o o

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

If the Science of Prehistoric Archaeology had long
excited as much interest in this country as it does at
present, Professor Nilsson's work on the Aborigines
of Scandinavia would not now be appearing in an
English translation for the first time.

M, Morlot has truly observed, that the wonderful
advance recently made in our knowledge of ancient
men, and particularly the division of European his-

^ tory into the three eras, the Stone, Bronze, and Iron

i Ages, is * due chiefly to the labours of M. Thomsen,

Director of the Ethnological and Archfleological

V Museum at Copenhagen, and to those of Professor

y Nilsson, of the flourishing University of Lund.'

. Both these archaeologists, however, unfortunately
for us, write in languages but little understood

^^^ in this country, and their labours, in consequence,
have remained almost unknown. When, therefore,
Messrs. Longman & Co. requested me to edit an
English translation of Professor Nilsson's * Stone
Age,' I very gladly undertook to do so.

vi EDITOR'S PREFACE.

Had Professor Nilsson's object been to exalt his
own reputation, he would have reprinted his book
just as it stood when first published in 1838-43. In
its present form, however, improved and somewhat
enlarged, his work is an even more valuable con-
tribution to our Ethnological literature.

The present translation was made in Sweden,
under the immediate superintendence of the Author.
It constitutes, in fact, a new edition, differing con-
siderably, not only from the original, but also from
that which was published at the commencement of
last year. Under these circumstances, I have not
liked to introduce too many modifications, lest, in
altering the style, I might perhaps change some-
what the meaning also. Moreover, although in many
places the English has a slightly foreign aspect, I do
not think that the reader will find any practical in-
convenience; and in the translation of a scientific
work, accuracy is of more importance than style.

As this i)Ook may be read by some who have
not made a special study of Prehistoric Archaeo-
logy, I have prefaced it with a short Introduction,
which is substantially the same as the Address which
I delivered before the Archaeological Institute at their
London meeting in July 1866.

This is, I think, the more desirable, because no flint

EDITOR'S PREFACE. tu

implements of the most ancient, or pals^lithic, types
have yet been found in Scandinavia. On this point
I can speak with some little confidence, having my-
self visited the excellent Museums of Copenhagen,
Stockholm, Lund, Flensborg, and Aarhuus, besides
many private collections. It seems to me, therefore,
probable that Scandinavia was not peopled until the
Second Stone, or Neolithic Age, which is so well
treated of in the present Work.

High Elms, Farnbobough, Kent:
November 10, 1807.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

Pbehistobic Archeology has but lately made good
its right to recognition as a branch of science;
and even now, perhaps, there are some who are
disposed to question the claim. We can never, it
is thought by these, become wise beyond what is
written : the ancient poems and histories contain all
that we can ever know about old times and bygone
races of men ; by the study of antiquities we may
often corroborate, and occasionally perhaps even cor*
/ rect, the statements of old writers, but beyond this
we can never hope to go. The ancient monuments
and remains themselves may excite our interest, but
they can teach us nothing. This opinion is as old as
the time of Horace : in one of his best known Odes
he tells us that —

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi ; sed onmes illacryiiiabilee
UrgentuT; ignotique longå
Nocte^ carent quia Tate sacro.

If this apply to nations as well as to individuals — ^if
our knowledge of the past be confined to that which

X EDITOR^S INTRODUCTION.

has been handed down to us in books — then Archaso*
logy is indeed restrained within fixed and narrow
limits ; it is reduced to a mere matter of criticism,
and is almost unworthy to be called a science.

- My object in the present Introduction is to vin-
dicate the claims of ArchaBology ; to point out briefly
the* light which has, more particularly in the last few
years, been thrown upon the past; and, above all,
if possible, to show that the antiquaries of the

' present day are no visionary enthusiasts, but that
the methods of archasological investigation are as
trustworthy as those of any natural science. I pur-
posely say the methods, rather than the results,
because while I believe that the progress recently
made has been mainly due to the use of those
methods which have been pursued with so much
success in geology, zoology, and other kindred
bmnches of science — and while fully persuaded that
in this manner we must eventually ascertain the
truth — I readily admit that there are many points
on which further evidence is required. Nor need the
antiquar}^ be ashamed to own that it is so. Biologists
diflPer about the Darwinian theory ; until very lately
the emission theory of light was maintained by some of
the best authorities ; Tyndall and Magnus are at issue
as to whether aqueous vapour does or does not absorb
heat ; astronomers have recently been obliged to
admit an error of more than 4,000,000 miles in their

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xi

estimate of the distance between the earth and the
sun ; nor is there any single proposition in theo-
logy to which an universal assent would be given.
Although, therefore, there are no doubt great diver-
sities of opinion among antiquaries, archseology is in
this respect only in the same condition as all other
branches of knowledge.

Conceding then, frankly, that from several of the
following conclusions some good archaaologists would
entirely dissent, I will now endeavour to state briefly
the principal results of modem research, and espe-
cially to give, as far as can be done within the limits
of a few pages, an idea of the kind of evidence on
which these conclusions are based.

I must also add, that my remarks are confined, ex-
cepting when it is otherwise specified, to that part of
Europe which lies to the north of the Alps ; and that
by the Primaeval Period I understand that which
extended from the first appearance of man down to
the commencement of the Christian era.

This period may be divided into four epochs : —
Firstly, the Palaeolithic, or First Stone Age ; secondly,
the Neolithic, or Second Stone Age; thirdly, the
Bronze Age ; and lastly, the Iron Age. Attempts have
been made, with more or less success, to establish
subdivisions of these periods, but into these I do not
now propose to enter : even if we can do no more as
yet than establish this succession, that will itself be

xii EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

Bufficient to show that we are not entirely dependent
on history.

^ ^1/ 1/ We will commence, then, with the Paloöolithic Age.

f , 7 - This is the most ancient period in which we have as
' yet any decisive proofs of the existence of man. M.

Desnoyers has, indeed, called attention to some bones
from the Pliocene beds of St. Prest, which appear to
show the marks of knives, and M. I'Abbe Bourgeois
has since found in the same locality some flints, which
he believes to have been worked by man ; Mr. Whin-
copp also has in his possession a bone from the crag,
which certainly looks as if it had been cut with some
sharp instrument. These cases, however, are not
perfectly conclusive, and as yet the implements found
• in the river-drift gravels are the oldest undoubted
traces of man's existence — older far than any of those
in Egypt or Assyria, though belonging to a period
which, from a geological pomt of view, is very recent.

Tlie PaUeolithic Age.

As regards the PalaBolithic Age, we may, I think,
regard the following conclusions as fully borne out
by the evidence : —

1. The antiquities referable to this period are
usually found in beds of gravel and loam, or, as it is
technically called, * loess,' extending along our valleys,
and reaching sometimes to a height of 200 feet above
the present water-level.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xiu

2. These beds were deposited by the existing rivers,
which then ran in the same directions as at present,
and drained the same areas.

3. With the exception of the coast-line, the geo-
graphy of Western Europe cannot therefore have
been very diflferent at the time those gravels were
deposited from what it is now.

4. The fauna of Europe at that time comprised the
mammoth, the wooUy-haired rhinoceros, the hippo-
potamus, the urus, the musk-ox^ &c., as well as most
of the existing animals.

5. The climate was much colder than at present.

6. Though we have no exact measure of time, we
can at least satisfy ourselves that this period was one
of very great antiquity.

7. Yet man already inhabited Western Europe.

8. He used rude implements of stone ;

9. Which were never polished, and of which some
types differ remarkably from any of those that were
subsequently in use.

10. He was ignorant of pottery, and (11) of
metals.

I will now proceed to examine these eleven con-
clusions at somewhat greater length : —

1. That these beds of gravel and loam, or, as it is
technically called, ^ loess,' extend along the slopes of
the valleys, and reach sometimes to a height of 200

XIV EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

feet above the present water-level, is a mere state-
ment of fact about which no difference of opinion has
arisen.

2. That these beds of gravel and loess were not
deposited by the sea, is proved by the fact that the
remains which occur in them are all those of land or
freshwater — and not of marine species. That they
were deposited by the existing rivers is evident, be-
cause in each river-valley they contain fragments of
those rocks only which occur in the area drained by
the river itself. As, therefore, the rivers drained the
same areas then as now, the geography of Western
Europe cannot have been at that period very different
from what it is at present.

\ The fauna, however, was very tmlike what
it is now, the existence of the animals above men-
tioned being proved by the presence and condition of
their bones.

4. The greater severity of the climate is indicated
by the nature of the fauna. The musk-ox, the woolly-
haired rhinoceros, the mammoth, the lemming, i&c,
are Arctic species, and the reindeer then extended to
the South of France. Another argument is derived
from the presence of great sandstone blocks in the
gravels of some rivers, as, for instance, of the Somme :
these, it appears, must have been transported by ice.

"S. The great antiquity of the period now under
discussion is evident from several considerations. The

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xv

extinction of the large mammalia must have been a
work of time ; and neither in the earliest writings, nor
in the vaguest traditions, do we find any indication
of their presence in Western Europe. Still more
conclusive evidence is aflforded by the condition of
our valleys. The beds of gravel and loam cannot
have been deposited by any sudden cataclysm, both
on account of their regularity, and also of the fact,
already mentioned, that the materials of one river-
system are never mixed with those of another. To
take an instance. The gravel of the Somme valley is
entirely formed of debris from the chalk and tertiary
strata occupying that area ; but at a right angle to,
and within a very few miles of, the headwaters of the
Somme comes the valley of the Oise. In this valley
are other older strata, no fragments of which have
found their way into the Somme valley, though they
could not have failed to do so had the gravels in
question been the result of any great cataclysm, or
had the Somme then drained a larger area than at
present. The beds in question are found in some cases
200 feet above the present water-level, and the bottom
of the valley is occupied by a bed of peat, which
in some places is as much as 30 feet in thickness.
We have no means of making an accurate calculation ;
but even if we allow, as we must, a good deal for the
floods which would be produced by the melting of
the snow, still it is evident that for the river to

• «

xvi EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

excavate its valley to a depth of more than 200 feet,*
and then for the formation of so thick a bed of peat,
much time must have been required. If, moreover,
we consider the alteration which has taken place in
the climate, as well as in the fauna, and, finally,
remember also that the last eighteen hundred years
have produced scarcely any . perceptible change, we
cannot but come to the conclusion that many, very
many, centuries have elapsed since the river ran at a
level so much higher than the present, and the coun-
try was occupied by a fauna so unlike that now in
existence there.
^ )8. The presence of man is proved by the discovery
of stone implements (figs. 1 and 2). Strictly speak-
ing, these only prove the presence of reasoning beings ;
but this being granted, few, if any, would doubt that
the beings in question were men. Human bones,
moreover, have been found in cave-deposits, which,
in the opinion of the best judges, belonged to this
period; and M. Boucher de Perthes considers that
various fragments of human bone found at Moulin
Quignon are also genuine. On this point long dis-
cussions have taken place, into which I will not now
enter. The question before us is, whether men
existed at all, not whether they had bones. On

• Many persons find a difficulty in understanding how the river
could have deposited gravel at so great a height, forgetting that the
valley was not then exctivated to anything like its present depth.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

xviii P:DIT0R'S INTRODUCTION.

the latter point no dispute is likely to arise, and
as regards the former, the works of man are as
good evidence as his bones could be. Moreover,
there seems to me nothing wonderful in the great
scarcity of human bones. A country where the in-
habitants subsist on the produce of the cl'ase can
never be otherwise than scantily ])eopled. If we
admit that for each man there must be a thousand
1 head of game existing at any one time — and this
seems a moderate allowance ; remembering also that
most mammalia are less long-lived than men, we
should naturally expect to find human remains very
rare as compared with those of other animals. Among
a people who burnt their dead, of course this dis-
proportion would be immensely increased. That the
flint implements found in these gravels are implements
it is unnecessary to argue. Their regularity, and the
care with which they have been worked to an edge,
prove that they have been intentionally chipped into
their present forms, and are not the result of accident.
That they are not forgeries we may be certain : firstly,
because they have been found in situ by many excel-
lent observers — by all, in fact, who have looked perse
verbigly for them ; and secondly, because, as the dis-
coloration of their surface is quite superficial, and
follows the existing outline, it has evidently been pro-
duced since the flints were brought to their present
forms. This is clearly shown in fig. 3 (p.xx.), which

EDITOll'S ISTItODL'CTION.
Fig. 2.

XX EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

represents a fractured suriace of fig. 2, and shows the
dark natural flint, surrounded by the altered surface.
Fi^. 3. The forgeries — for there are

forgeries — are of a dull lead
colour, like other freshly-
broken surfaces of flint. The
same evidence justifies us in
concluding that the imple-
ments are coeval with the
beds of gravel in which they
are found.
?, _^Without counting flakes,
we shall certainly be within
the mark if we estimate that
three thousand flint imple-
ments of the Palaiolithic Age
have been discovered in Nor-
thern Franco and Southern
England. These are all of types which difl'er con-
siderably from those which came subsequently into
use, and they are none of them polished ; we may
therefore, I think, infer that the art of polishing
' stone implements was as yet unknown.

é ■ I "^ayd 10. In the same manner, I think, we may
safely conclude that the use of metal and of pottery
was then unknown, as is the cage even now with
many races of savages.

Although flint implements were observed in the

EDITOR'S INTKODUCTION. xxi

drift-gravels more than half a century ago by Mr.
Frere, still his observations were forgotten until the
same discovery was again made by M. Boucher de
Perthes. For our knowledge of the gravel-beds in
which they occur, however, we are principally in-
debted to Mr. Prestwich. Sir Charles Lyell has the
high merit of having carefully examined the facts,
and given to the antiquity of man the authority of
his great name ; nor must the labours of Mr. Evans
be passed imnoticed. To him we owe the first com-
parison between the flint implements of this and those
of the Neolithic period.

In what precedes, 1 have relied principally on the
researches in the river-drift gravel-beds. Much ad-
ditional information has, however, been obtained by
the examination of caves. Though I cannot here
do justice to the numerous archaeologists who have
laboured at this branch of the science, I must take
the opportunity of alluding to two of our fellow-
countrymen, Dr. Falconer and Mr. Christy — who
have recently, alas ! been lost to us and to science.
Mr. Busk, who had been for some time engaged with
Dr. Falconer in the study of the Gibraltar caves, will
publish the result of the investigations which he had
left in an unfinished state, and everyone will admit
that the materials could not be in better hands.

The researches carried on by Mr. Christy, in con-
junction with M. Lartet, in the caves of the Dordogne,

xxii EDITOR'S IXTRODUCTIOX.

are of great interest. The general facts may be
stated to be, that while thousands of implements
made out of stone, bone, and horn, have been col-
lected, no trace of pottery, nor evidence of the use
of metals, not even a i)olished stone implement, has
yet been met Avith. The people who lived in the
/ South of France at that period seem, in a great many

/ respects, to have resembled the Esquimaux. Their
principal food was the reindeer, and though traces of
the musk-ox, mammoth, cave-lion, as well as other

X animals of the quaternary fauna have been met with,
it is still possible that these may not belong to the
same period. These cavemen were very ingenious,
and excellent workers in flint; but though their bone-
pins, &c., are beautifully j)olished, this is never the
case with their flint weapons. The habit of allowing
oAbI and bones to accumulate in their dwellings is
indicative, probably, of a cold climate.

Perhaps, however, the most remarkable fact of all
is, that although in other respects so slightly advanced
in civilisation, these ancient French cavemen, like the
Esquimaux, show a wonderful genius for art. Many
very si)irited drawings of animals have been found
represented on fragments of bone, stone, and horn,
and M. Lartet has found in the rock-shelter at La
Madelaine a fragment of mammoth-tusk, on which
was engraved a representation of the animal itself.*

* Sec also note 7.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xxiii

On the whole, these remains probably belong to an
epoch somewhat less ancient than the implements of \
the St. Acheul gravels; from the preponderance of
the remains of that animal, it has been called the
Reindeer period.

The Neolithic Age.

We now pass to the later Stone or Neolithic
Age, with reference to which the following pro-
positions may, I think, be regarded as satisfactorily
established : —

1. There was a period when polished stone axes
were extensively used in Europe.

2. The objects belonging to this period do not occur
in the river-drift gravel-beds ;

3. Nor in association with the great extinct mam-
malia.

4. They were in use long before the discovery or
introduction of metals.

5. The Danish shell-mounds, or Kjökkenmöddings,
belong to this period ;

6. As do many of the Swiss lake-dwellings;

7. And of the tumuli, or burial-mounds.

8. Rude stone implements appear to have been in
use longer than those more carefully worked.

9. Hand-made pottery was in use during this
period.

xxiv EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

10. In Central Europe, the ox, sheep, goat, pig,
and dog were already domesticated.

11. Agriculture had also commenced.

12. Flax was cultivated and woven into tissues.

13. At lea.st two distinct races already occupied
Western Europe.

1 . That there was a period when polished axes and
other implements of stone were extensively used in
Western Europe is sufficiently proved by the great
numbers in which these objects occur: for instance,
the Dublin Museum contains more than|2,000, that
of Copenhagen more than 10,000, and that of Stock-
holm not fewer than 15,000.

2. The objects characteristic of this period do not
occur in the river-drift gravels. Some of the simpler
ones, indeed — as, for instance, flint flakes — were used
both in the Neolitliic and Palaeolithic periods. The
polished axes, chisels, gouges, &c. are very distinct,
however, from the ruder implements of the Palaeolithic
Age, and are never found in the river-drift gravels.
Conversely, the Palaeolithic types have never yet
been met with in association with those characteristic
of the later epoch.

Again, while the Neolithic implements are re-
markably numerous in Denmark and Sweden, the
Palaeolithic types are absolutely unknown there. It
is probable, therefore, that these northern countries
were not inhabited by man durinj]^ the earlier period.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xxv

3. Nor do the types of the Neolithic Age ever oc-
cur in company with the Quaternary fauna, under
circumstances which would justify us in regarding
them as coeval.

4. The implements in question were in use before
the introduction or discovery of metal. It is a great
mistake to suppose that implements of stone were
abandoned directly metal was discovered. For certain
purposes, as for arrow-heads, stone would be quite as
suitable as the more precious substance. Flint flakes,
moreover, were so useful, and so easily obtained, that
they were occasionally employed even down to a
very late period. Even for axes and chisels, the in-
contestable superiority of metal was for a while coun-
terbalanced by its greater costliness. Captain Cook,
indeed, tells us that in Tahiti the implements of stone
and bone were in a very few years replaced by those
of metal; a stone hatchet was then, he says, ^as
rare a thing as an iron one was eight years ago, and
a chisel of bone or stone is not to be seen.' The
rapidity with which the change from stone to metal is
effected depends on the supply of the latter. In the
above case. Cook had with him abundance of metal, in
exchange for which the islanders supplied his vessels
with great quantities of fresh meat, vegetables, and
other more questionable articles of merchandise. The
introduction of metal into Europe was certainly far
more gradual ; stone and metal were long used side by

xxvi EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

Bide, and archsBologists are often too hasty in referring
stone implements to the Stone Age. It would be easy
to quote numerous instances in which implements
have been, without any sufficient reason, referred to
the Stone Age, merely because they were formed of
stone. The two Stone Ages are characterised not
merely by the use of stone, but by the use of stone
to the exclusion of metal. I cannot therefore too
strongly impress on archaaologists, that many stone
implements belong to the metallic period. Why, then,
it will be asked, may they not all have done so ? and
this question I will now endeavour to answer.

5. The Danish shell-mounds are the refuse heaps
of the ancient inhabitants, round whose dwellings the
bones and shells of the animals on which they fed
gradually accumulated. Like a modem dustheap,
these shell-mounds contain all kinds of household
objects — some purposely thrown away as useless, but
some also accidentally lost. These mounds have been
examined with great care by the Danish archaeologists,
and especially by Professor Steenstrup. Many thou-
sand implements of stone and bone have been obtained
from them ; and as, on the one hand, from the absence
of extinct animals, and of implements belonging to
the PalsBoUthic Age, we conclude that these shell-
mounds do not belong to that period, so, on the other
hand, from the absence of all trace of metal, we are
justified in referring them to a period when metal was

unknown.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xxvU

6. The same arguments apply to some of the Swiss >
lake-dwellings, the discovery of which we owe to '
Dr. Keller, and which have been so admirably studied
by Desor, Morlot, Troyon, and other Swiss archsBolo-
gists. A glance at the Table A. will show that,
while in some of them objects of metal are very "^
abundant, in others, which have been not less care- .
fully or thoughtfully explored, stone implements are .
met with to the exclusion of metallic ones. It may
occur, perhaps, to some, that the absence of metal in
some of the lake- villages, and its presence in others,
is to be accounted for by its scarcity — that, in fact,
metal will be found when the localities shall have
been suflSciently searched. But a glance at the table
will show that the settlements in which metal occurs '
are deficient in stone implements. Take the same
number of objects from Wangen and Nidau, and in
the one case 90 per cent, will be of metal, while in
the other the whole number are of stone or bone.
This carmot be accidental — the numbers are too great ^
to admit of such a hypothesis; nor can the fact be
accounted for by contemporaneous differences of
civilisation, because the localities are too close toge- :
ther ; neither is it an affair of wealth, because we find I
such articles as fishhooks, &c., made of metal. '

7. We may also, I think, safely refer some of the
tumuli or burial-mounds to this period. When we
find a large tumulus, the erection of which must have

xxviii EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

been extremely laborious, it is evident that it must
have been erected in honour of some distinguished in-
dividual ; and when his flint daggers, axes, &c. — which,
from the labour and difficulty of making them, must
have been of great value — were deposited in the tomb,
it is reasonable to conclude, that if he had possessed
any arms of metal, they also would have been buried
with him. This we know was done in subsequent
periods. In burials of the Stone Age the corpse was
either deposited in a sitting posture, or burnt, but
rarely, if ever, extended at full length.

8. It is an error to suppose that the rudest flint
implements are necessarily the oldest. The Palaeoli-
thic implements show admirable workmanship. More-
over, every flint implement is rude at first. A bronze
celt is cast perfect ; but a flint implement is rudely
blocked out in the first instance, and then, if any
concealed flaw comes to light, or if any ill-directed
blow causes an inconvenient fracture, the unfinished
implement is perhaps thrown away. Moreover, the
simplest flint-flake forms a capital knife, and accord-
ingly we find that some simple stone implements
were in use long after metal had replaced the beau-
tifiilly-worked axes, knives, and daggers, which must
always have been very difficult to make. The period
immediately before the introduction of metal may
reasonably be supposed to be that of the best stone
implements, but the use of the simpler ones lingered

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

XZIX

long. Moreover, there are some reasons to believe
that pierced stone axes are characteristic of the early
metallic period.

9. Hand-made pottery is abundant in the shell-
mounds and the lake- villages, as well as in the tumuli
which appear to belong to the Stone Age. No con-
clusive evidence that the potter's wheel was yet in
use has been discovered.

10. The dog is the only domestic animal found in
the shell-mounds ; but remains of the ox, sheep, goat,
and pig appear in the lake-villages. There is some
doubt about the horse ; and the barn-door fowl, as
well as the cat, was unknown.

11. The presence of corn-crushers, as well as of
carbonised wheat, barley, and flax, in the Swiss lake-
dwellings, proves that agriculture was already pur-
sued with success in Central Europe. Oats, rye, and
hemp were unknown.

12. Tissues of woven flax have been found in some
of the Swiss lake-villages.

13. At least two forms of skull, one long and one
round, are found in the tumuli which appear to belong
to this period. Until now, however, we have not a
single human skull from the Danish shell-mounds,
nor from any Swiss lake-dwelling, which can be
referred with certainty to this period.

XXX EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

The Bronze Age.

1. The Neolithic Age was followed by a period when
bronze was extensively used for arms and implements.

2. Stone, however, was also in use, especially for
certain purposes, as, for instance, for arrow-heads, and
in the form of flakes for cutting.

3- Some of the bronze axes appear to be mere
copies of the earlier stone ones.

4. Many of the Swiss lake-villages and of the
tumuli belong to this period.

5. This is shown, not merely by the presence of
metal, but also by other considerations.

6. The pottery of the Bronze Age is better than that
of the earlier period.

7. Gold, amber, and glass were used for orna-
mental purposes.

8. Silver, lead, and zinc appear to have been un-
known.

9. This was also the case with iron.

10. Coins were not in use.

11. Skins were probably worn, but tissues of flax
and wool were also in use.

12. The ornamentation of the period is charac-
teristic, and consists of geometrical markings.

13. The handles of the arms, the bracelets, &c.,
indicate a small race.

14. Writing appears to have been unknown;

15. Yet there was a very considerable commerce.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xxxi

16. It is more than probable that the knowledge
of- bronze was introduced into, not discovered in,
Europe.

1 . It is admitted by all that there was a period
when bronze was extensively used for arms and im-
plements. The great number of such objects which
are preserved in our museums places this beyond a
doubt.

2. It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that
stone implements were entirely abandoned. Arrow-
heads and flakes of flint are found abundantly in some
of those Swiss lake-villages which contain bronze. In
these cases, indeed, it may be argued, that the same
site had been occupied both before and after the
introduction of bronze. The evidence derived from
the examination of tumuli is, however, not open to
the same objection, and in these objects of bronze and
of stone are very frequently found together. Thus ,
I have shown, by an analysis of the investigations re-
corded by Mr. Bateman, that in three-fourths of the '
tumuli containing bronze (29 out of 37) stone objects j
also occuiTcd. ,

3. Some of the bronze axes appear to be mere
copies of the stone ones. Such simple axes of iron
are still used in Central Africa, where no evidence
of a Bronze Age has yet been found, but in Europe
they are not met with.

xxxu EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

4. Many of the Swiss lake-villages belong to this
period. The Table B. (very kindly drawn up, at my
request, by Dr. Keller) places this beyond a doubt,
and gives a good idea of the objects in use during
the Bronze Age, and the state of civilisation during
that period.

5. The absence of metal, though the principal, is
by no means the only point which distinguishes the
Stone Age villages from those of the Bronze period.
If we compare Nidau, as a type of the last, with
Moosseedorf, as the best representative of the former,
we shall find that, while bones of wild animals pre-
ponderate in the one, those of tame ones are most
numerous in the latter. The vegetable remains point
also to the same conclusion. Even if we knew no-
thing about the want of metal in the older lake-
villages, we should still, says Professor Heer, be com-
pelled from botanical considerations to admit their
greater antiquity.

Moreover, so far as they have been examined, the
piles themselves tell the same tale. Those of the
Bronze Age settlements were evidently cut with
metal ; those of the earlier villages with stone, or at
any rate with rude and blunt instruments.

6. The pottery was much better than that of the
earlier period. A great deal of it was still hand-
made, but some is said to show marks of the potter's
wheel.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xxxiii

7. Gold, amber, and glass were used for oma- \
mental purposes.

8. Silver, zinc, and lead, on the contrary, were
apparently unknown.

9. The same appears to have been the case with
iron.

10. Coins have never beeti found with bronze
arms. To this rule I only know of three appai-ent
exceptions. Not a single coin has been met with in
any of the Swiss lake- villages of this period.

11. The dress of this period no doubt still con-
sisted in great part of skins. Tissues of flax have
been found, however, in some of the lake-villages,
and a suit of woollen material ( consisting of a cloak,
a shirt, two shawls, a pair of leggings, and two caps)
was found in a Danish tumulus which evidently
belonged to the Bronze Age; as it contained a sword,
a brooch, a knife, an awl, a pair of tweezers, and a
large stud, all of bronze, besides a small button of tin,
a javelin-head of flint, a bone comb, and a bark box.

We have independent evidence of the same fact in
the presence of spindle-whorls.

12. The ornamentation on the arms, implements,
and pottery is peculiar. It consists of geometrical
patterns — straight lines, circles, triangles, zigzags, &c.
Animals and vegetables are very rarely attempted,
and never \nth success.

13. Another peculiarity of the bronze arms lies in

xxxiv EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

the small size of the handles. The same observation
applies to the bracelets, &c. They could not be
used by the present inhabitants of Northern Europe.

14. No traces of writing have been met with in any
finds of the Bronze Age. There is not an inscription
on any of the arms or pottery found in the Swiss
lake-villages, and I only know one instance of a
bronze cutting instrument with letters on it.

15. The very existence of bronze appears to indi-
cate that of a considerable and extensive commerce,
inasmuch as there are only two places — ^namely, Corn-
wall and the Island of Banca — ^whence tin can have been
obtained in large quantities. There are, indeed, some
other places where it occurs, as, for instance. Spain,
Saxony, and Brittany, but oiJy (now at least) in small
quantities, though possibly it may once have been
more abundant. The earliest source of tin was not,
I think, any one of those now known to us, but it is
probable that, for many centuries before our era, the
principal supply was derived from Cornwall. The
intercourse then existing between different parts of
Europe is also proved by the great, not to say com-
plete, similarity of the arms from very difi^erent parts
of Europe.

16. Finally, as copper must have been in use
before bronze, and as arms and implements of that
metal are almost unknown in Western Europe, it is
reasonable to conclude that the knowledge of bronze
was introduced into, not discovered in, Europe.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xxxv

Two distinguished archsBologists have recently ad-
vocated very different views as to the race by whom
these bronze weapons were made, or at least used.
Mr. Wright attributes them to the Romans, Pro-
fessor Nilsson to the Phoenicians. The first of these
theories I believe to be utterly untenable. In ad-
dition to the facts already brought forward, there are
two which by themselves are, I think, almost sufficient
to disprove the hypothesis. Firstly, the word ferrum
was employed in Latin as a synonym for a sword,

which would scarcely have been the case if another
metal had been generally used for the purpose.
Secondly, the distribution of bronze weapons and
implements does not favour such a theory. The
Romans never entered Denmark ; it has been doubted
whether they ever landed in Ireland. Yet while
more than 350 bronze swords have been found in
Denmark, and a very large number in Ireland also,*
I have only been able to hear of one single bronze
sword in Italy. The rich museums at Florence,
Rome, and Naples do not appear to contain a single
specimen of those typical, leaf-shaped bronze swords,
which are, comparatively speaking, so common in
the North. That the bronze swords should have been
introduced into Denmark by a people who never

* The Museum at Dublin contains 282 swords and daggers : un-
luckily, the number of swords is not stated separately.

xxx^ EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

occupied that country, and from a part of Europe in
which they are almost unknown, is, I think, a most
untenable hypothesis. It is doubtless true that a few
cases are on record in which bronze weapons are
said to have been, and very likely were, found in
association with Roman remains. Mr. Wright has
pointed out three, one of which however I cannot
admit. But, under any circumstances, we must ex-
pect to meet with some such cases. My only wonder
is that so few of them should exist.

As regards Professor Nilsson's theory, according to
which the Bronze Age objects are of Phoenician ori-
gin, I will only say, that the Phoenicians in historical
times were well acquainted with iron, and that their
favourite ornamentation was of a diflferent character
from that of the Bronze Age. If, then. Professor
Nilsson be correct, the bronze weapons must belong
to an earlier period in Phoenician history than that
with which we are partially famihar.

It would now be natural that I should pass on to
the Iron Age ; but the transition period between the
two is illustrated by a discovery so remarkable that
I cannot pass it over altogether in silence. M. Ram-
sauer, for many years head of the salt-mines at
Hallstadt, near Salzburg, in Austria, has opened not
less than 980 graves in a country apparently belonging
to an ancient colony of miners. The results are
described and the objects figured in an album, of

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xxxrii

which Mr. Evans and I have recently procured a
copy fix)m M. Kamsauer himself. We hope soon to
make this remarkable find known in a more satis-
factory manner. For the moment, I will only extract
the main facts which are necessary to my present
argument.

That the period to which these graves belonged
was that of the transition between the Bronze and
Iron Ages, is evident, both because we find cutting \
instruments of iron as well as of bronze, and also
because both are of somewhat unusual, and we may
almost say of intermediate, types. The same remark ]
applies to the ornamentation. Animals are frequently •
represented, but are very poorly executed, while the .
geometrical patterns are well drawn. Coins are entirely
absent. That the transition was from bronze to iron,

and not from iron to bronze, is clear ; because here, \

•

as elsewhere, while iron instruments with bronze
handles are common, there is not a single case of a j
bronze blade with an iron handle. This shows that

when both metals were in use, the iron was pre-
ferred for blades. Another interesting point in the
Hallstadt Bronze is the absence of silver, lead,
and zinc (excepting, of course, as a mere impurity
in the bronze). This is the more remarkable, inas-
much as the presence, not only of the tin itself,
but also of glass, amber, and ivory, indicates the
existence of an extensive commerce.

xxxviii ^EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

The Iron Age*

The Iron Age is the period when this metal was
first used for weapons and cutting instruments.
During this epoch we emerge into the broad, and in
many respects delusive, glare of history.

No one of course will deny that arms of iron were
in use by our ancestors at the time of the Roman
invasion. Mr. Crawfurd considers them to be more
ancient than these of bronze, while Mr. Wrigtt
maintains that the bronze weapons belong to the
Roman period.

I have already attempted to show, from the fre-
quent occurrence of iron blades with bronze handles,
and the entire absence of the reverse, that iron must
have succeeded and replaced bronze. Other argu-
ments might be adduced ; but it will be sufficient to
state broadly that which I think no experienced
archaBologist will deny — ^namely, that the objects
which accompany bronze weapons are much more
archaic in character than those which are found with
weapons of iron.

That the bronze swords and daggers were not used
by the Romans in Caesar's times, I have already at-
tempted to prove. That they were not used at that
period by the northern races, is distinctly stated in
history. I will, however, endeavour to make this
also evident on purely archaeological grounds. We

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xxxix

have several important finds of this period, among
which I will specially call your attention to the lake-
village of La Tene, in the Lake of NeufchåteL At
this place no flint implements (excepting flakes) have
occurred. Only fifteen objects of bronze have been
found, and only one of them was an axe. Moreover,
this was pierced for a handle, and belonged therefore
to a form rarely, if ever, occurring in finds of the
Bronze Age. On the other hand, the objects of iron
are numerous, and comprise fifty swords, twenty- three
lances, and five axes. Coins have also been met with
at this station, while they are entirely absent in those
of the Bronze Age.

The only other find of the Iron Age to which I will
now refer, is that of Nydam, recently described at
length by M. Engelhardt, in his excellent work on
^Denmark in the Early Iron Age.' At this place
have been found an immense number of the most
diverse objects — clothes, brooches, tweezers, beads,
helmets, shields, coats of mail, buckles, harness, '
boats, rakes, brooms, mallet», bows, vessels of wood [
and pottery, 80 knives, 30 axes, 40 awls, 160 arrow-
heads, 180 swords, and nearly 600 lances. All these
weapons were of iron, though bronze was freely used
for ornaments. That this find, as well as the very
similar one at Thorsbjerg in the same neighbourhood,
belonged to the Roman period, is clearly proved by
the existence of numerous coins, belonging to the

(
\

xl EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

first two centuries after Christ, although not one has
occurred in any of the Bronze Age lake-villages, or in
the great find at Hallstadt.

It is quite clear, therefore, that neither bronze nor
stone weapons were in use in Northern Europe at the
commencement of our era.

A closer examination would much strengthen this
conclusion. For instance, at Thorsbjerg alone there
are seven inscriptions, either in Runes or Roman
characters; while, as I have already stated, letters
are quite unknown, with one exception, on any object
of the Bronze Age, or in the great transition find at
Hallstadt. Again, the significance of the absence of
silver in the Hallstadt find is greatly increased when
we see that in the true Iron Age, as in the Nydam
and other similar finds, silver was used to ornament
shield-bosses, shield-rims, sandals, brooches, breast-
plates, sword-hilts, sword-sheaths, girdles, harness,
&c. ; and also for clasps, pendants, boxes, and twee-
zers, while in one case a helmet was made of this
comparatively rare material.

The pottery also shows much improvement, the
forms of the weapons are quite different, and the
character of the ornamentation is very unlike, and
much more advanced than that of the Bronze Age.
Moreover, the bronze used in the Iron Age differs
from that of the Bronze Age, in that it frequently
contains lead and zinc in considerable quantities.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xH

These metals have never been found, excepting as
mere impurities, in the bronzes of the true Bronze
Age, nor even in those of HaUstadt.

These finds, moreover, clearly show that the inha-
bitants of Northern and Western Europe were by no
means such mere savages as we have been apt to
suppose. As far as our own ancestors are concerned,
this is rendered even more evident by the discoveries
of those ancient British coins which have been so well
described and figured by Mr. John Evans.*

In conclusion, I would venture to suggest that
the Government should be urged to appoint a Koyal
Conservator of National Antiquities. We cannot
put Stonehenge or the Wansdyke into a museum —
all the more reason why we should watch over them
where they are; and even if the destruction of our
ancient monuments should, under any circumstances,
become necessary, careful drawings ought first to be
made, and their removal should take place under
proper superintendence. We are apt to blame the
Eastern peasants who use the grand old monimients
of Egypt or Assyria as mere stone-quarries, but we
forget that even in our own country, Avebury, the
most magnificent of Druidical remains, was almost
destroyed for the profit of a few pounds; while,
recently, the Jockey Club has mutilated the remain-

• The Coins of the Ancient Britons.

]

xUi EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

ing portion of the Devil's Dyke on Newmarket Heath,
in order to make a bank for the exclusion of scouts
at trial races. In this case also, the saving, if any,
must have been very small ; and I am sure that no
society of English gentlemen would have sanctioned
such a proceeding, if they had given the subject a
moment's consideration.

In this short Introduction I have purposely avoided
all reference to history, all use of historical data,
because I have been particularly anxious to show
^ in AroWIogy we en Jve .t definite „d
satisfactory conclusions, on independent grounds,
without any assistance from history; consequently
regarding times before writing was invented, and
therefore before written history had commenced.

I have endeavoured to select only those arguments

which rest on well-authenticated facts. For my own

part, however, I care less about the results than the

method. For an infant science, as for a child, it is of

small importance to make rapid strides at first : and

I care comparatively little how far our present views

stand the test of further investigations, if only we are

satisfied that our method is one which will eventually

lead us to the truth.

John Lubbock.

EDITOR'S INTEODUCTION.

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xliv

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

TABLE B.

Celts and fragments . .

t
11

SworcU

...

*•*

•••

• ••

...

Hammers

...

t • •

.. •

«. ■

Kniyes and fragments .

102

193

Hair-pins

611

239

183

237

1,367

Small Rings ....

496

116

196

202

1,063

Earrings

238

116

• • •

440

Bracelets and fragments

146

Fishhooks

109

247

Awls

■••

• • •

262

Spiral wires ....

...

.. .

...

• ••

101

Lance-heads ....

...

Arrow-heads ....

...

•••

...

•••

Buttons

...

•••

• a ■

Needles

...

• • •

Various ornaments • .

• • •

Saws

...

• • •

...

*••

...

• a •

Daggers

...

«••

■« •

•••

••.

Sickles

Double-pointed pins . .

••.

...

■« •

•■ •

...

Small bracelets . . .

...

*••

...

• a •

Sundries ^

•••

124

Total ....

2,004

208

617

836

639

4,346

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

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PREFACE

-o^

In placing this essay* before an enlightened Public,
I feel it to be incumbent on myself to explain briefly
the cause which led to its production, and to the form
which it has now assumed.

Besides the study of Zoology, that of Antiquities
has from my youth ever been my favourite occupa-
tion ; and whilst engaged in collecting materials for my
* Scandinavian Faima,' during frequent visits to almost
all parts of the Scandinavian Peninsula, even to within
the Polar Circle, I have sought to collect objects illus-
trative of Scandinavian Archaeology.

After having, for a period of twenty-two years,
been Professor of Zoology at the University of Lund,
I published my first work, 'Essay on the History
of Sporting and Hunting in Scandinavia' ('Utkast
till Jagtens och Fiskets Historia på Scandinavien,'
Lund, 1834),f in which I introduced, from the few

* Already in the preiace to the first edition in 1838 I have
explained that by primitiye inhabitants I understand not only tlic
first inhabitants, but all who lived in the country anterior to the
period of history — consequently the prehistoric people of Scandi-
navia, of one or more tribes.

f Shortly before this time, Mr. Thomsen in Copenhagen had
inserted in Nordisk Tidskrift för Oldkyndighet a treatise, Om
Nordiska Oldsager af Sten, of which I did not become cognisant until
ray esitay had already been consigned to the printer and put into type.

xlviu PREFACE.

materials I had then at hand, the comparative me-
thod of instruction, which, under the guidance of the
illustrious Baron Cuvier, had been adopted in works
on Zoology,

My first attempt having been favourably received
by several eminent scientific men, I felt it to be my
duty to continue in the path on which I had entered.
But to be able to do this ynth any hopes of ultimate
success, I found that it would be necessary to visit
those foreign museums in which were preserved a
great number of such implements and weapons as are
still used at the present time by people who live in
so low a degree of civilisation that they are even yet
ignorant of the use of metals, but have for imple-
ments and weapons only stone, bone, and other hard
substances, suitable for the purpose, I therefore
undertook, in 1836, a long journey through Copen-
hagen and Hamburg to London, Bristol, and Paris,
where were already to be found the richest collec-
tions of the kind which I wished to inspect — these
collections being thrown open to me with the
greatest courtesy and liberality. I also examined
several private collections in various other places.

On my return to Sweden, I arranged the pre-
liminaries for publishing this work, which was
entitled ' Skandinaviska Nordens Urinvånare ' ( The
Primitive Inhabitants of the Scandinavian North),
the first number of which was issued in 1838, the
fourth and last in 1843.*

* Already in the preface to the first number, I called attention to
the circumstance, that by this title were imderstood all the pre-
hiatonc inhabiianU of Scandinavia.

PREFACE. xlix

Besides the foreign, I had already visited all the
collections, both public and private, belonging to the
capitals and universities of the peninsula — Stockholm,
Upsala, Christiania, Bergen, Lund, &c., with several
in the possession of antiquaries in the country ; and
I had then brought together a very considerable
private collection of antiquities.

Even this my first attempt was for the most part
favourably received, and, without my knowledge,
translated into German by Hr. Masch, who had in-
tended to publish it, had he not been requested by me
to postpone its publication, until, as I hoped, a new
edition would be ready. Hr. Masch died shortly
afterwards, having made a donation of the translation
to the library of the Museum at Schwerin, where it
was first noticed by Professor Morlot, by whom seve-
ral extracts from it were published.

Although, as above stated, this first edition was
favourably received by most readers, some few
voices were raised against my assertion that the in-
habitants of the country were fi:om the beginning
savages,* and that the very first belonged to the
same race as the Laplanders of the present time ;
my endeavour to interpret from historical sources
the origin of the names Dwarfs, Giants (Joinar)^
Elves, &c., which occur in ancient tales, as being
people of different races, also met with considerable
opposition.

* This occurred already in my first essay in 1834, in which
mention was expressly made of the savages' hunting in Scandinavia,
I then also endeavotired to show that onr antiquities of stone, &c.,
were not exclusively weapons of war, as formerly beHeved, but
principally implements for domestic purposes.

1 PREFACE.

In this work our most ancient antiquities were for
the first time compared piece by. piece with those
of existing savages. Several forms were there de-
scribed for the first time which here in the North
had not previously been noticed, or had been erro-
neously explained ; for instance, the angling-plummet^
which was formerly called a sling-stone, whilst at the
same time sketches were given of the real sling-
stone, which until then was unknown ; harpoons and
fishing-forks of various shapes were also sketched;
hoes of stone and elk*horn were exhibited; and a
long series of tools with which the stone implements
were fabricated, and which I have called hammer-
stones, or fashioning stones, were likewise for the
first time exhibited.

I may here call the reader's attention to the simi-
larity, or rather identity, not only of the simpler im-
plements of stone and bone which occur amongst very
distant nations in the Old and New World (see PI. V.
figs. 99-103 ; 109-111 ; 106-108), but also between
instruments more or less complicated. I may also re-
f mark, that people in the same phase of civilisation are
in their natural disposition very much alike ; that the
savage hates the colonist, and amongst the rude races
i themselves, those more .favoured by nature pursue
I and endeavour to extirpate those who are, in a phy-
\ sical and intellectual point of view, their inferiors.
\ This appears to be a universal law of nature.

Certainly no country possesses so many ancient and
marvellous tales as Scandinavia. The cause of this

PREFACE. Ii

may lie in the long winter evenings, when story-telling
about past times was the most cherished occupation
of the people, who, dwelling in the thick and gloomy
forests, filled their minds with mystic images. How
marvellous are the tales which originate with rude
nations we have endeavoured to show on page 208,
and we may thus find the key to those of our own
country. In the Eddas, the popular tales being
poetised, we do not by them become acquainted with
our pagan times ; but by the reports of the first
Christian missionaries who appeared here, by the cruel
proceedings of the corsairs (vikings), and perhaps
by the conduct of the Erules.

I have not ventured to divide the productions of
the Stone Period into two classes, according to their
age, because I have not found any unvaried lines of
demarcation (as, for example, in the divisions of plants
and animals) which enable me, at the inspection of
each object, to determine to which division it ought
to belong. I have, on the other hand, divided them
according to shape and applicability, because I have
found polished, unpolished, and rough-hewn stones
together. I will, however, not deny that such arti-
cles of flint, which by some antiquaries are called
coast-finds^ and which are also to be seen with us in
several places in Scania on the coast of the Baltic,
are older than those lying in the tumuli.

Sir John Lubbock, in his * Prehistoric Times,'
pages 1 and 2, has divided prehistoric archaeology
into four diffferent epochs, of which the first two
are reckoned to the Stone Period, and of these the

lii PREFACE.

first to the PalaDolitic Period, or, as it is called by
English geologists, the drift, when man in Europe
lived together with the mammoth, the cave-bear, the
woollen-clad rhinoceros, &c.

The second, the NeoUthic Period, or the age of
polished stones. To this belong the Megalithic graves,
and to the older part of it the author refers also the
kjökkennaöddings of Denmark (page 96).

T had intended to insert here the ' Bidrag till den
Svenska fornforskningens Historia under de sistför-
flutna några och trettio åren,'* which is inserted in the
preface to the former edition, chiefly as a counter-
part to Mr. Hindenburg's ' Bidrag til den Danske
Archaeologies Historic,' which is inserted in the
' Dansk Maanadsskrift,' 1859, page 149, and to show
what share the antiquaries on each side of the Sound
have had in bringing the science of northern anti-
quities to its present state ; but want of space com-
pels me to defer doing so for the present; perhaps
until publishing the next volume of the present
work.

I have, on the other hand, taken the liberty to
make a few remarks, more especially intended for
those who are not professed antiquaries. These
remarks contain a few rules, which I, for my part,
will endeavour to follow when commenting on the
works of other ethnographic authors, and which I am
desirous others may follow when commenting on

♦ Appendix to the History of Swedish Antiquities during some
Thirty Years past.

PREFACE. liii

mine ; and I am the more anxious that these rules
may be adopted, as the main object of every critical
work should be that of eliciting truth.

Firstly. When my conviction leads me to reject
the opinion expressed by another author on a certain
subject, I think it my duty to state the reasons for
my rejection, and to explain the view which, on a
fiill consideration of all the circumstances, I consider
to be the correct one.

Secondly. When I wish to refute the opinion ex-
pressed by another, it is Mny duty to enumerate all
the proofs he has adduced to confirm it.

Thirdly. As witnesses throwing light upon ancient
times I count not only antiquities, monuments, their
different shapes, and the figures engraved upon them,
but sho popular tales^ which most frequently origi-
nate from traditions, and are therefore remnants of
olden times.

Fourthly. When a vicious or evil spirit is men-
tioned in any tale or popular tradition, I consider
- it always implies a reminiscence of some being who
formerly, during the supremacy of a religion now
rejected, was worshipped as a god. He is considered
"to benefit his worshippers, but to molest those that
hold another religious belief. Mankind, when in a
rude state, often attribute their own intolerance to
their gods. Thus man creates his own god after his
own image.

Fifthly. The comparative method ought always to
be u^d; but similarities such as the presence of
similaf^ stone arrows in Scania and in Tierra del

liv PREFACE.

Fuego, do not always prove one and the same origin.
A sound judgment is required to draw a certain con-
clusion from the facts, and this can be acquired for
each separate science by long experience alone.

Sixthly. Should the enquirer wish to discover
whence a certain period of culture is derived, whether
it was originally indigenous or introduced, he must
make it clear to himself how it appeared in its first
state, and what changes it assumed whilst pro-
gressing. For instance, if we wish to examine the
origin of the Bronze Age, we must first clearly
understand which form of bronze sword is the
oldest ; whether it be the handsomest and best fabri-
cated, with elegant shapes and beautiful ornaments
(double spirals), and of which the sword-hilts are in-
variably short, or those less artistically manufactured,
with long hilts, and either plain or with ornaments
entirely different from those of the former. I may
be allowed to request all who may wish to determine
the origin of the Bronze Period in Northern and
Western Europe carefully to consider this point. If
the former prove to be the oldest, and that culture
was at its height when it first made its appearance
here amongst a people who, until then, had no other
implements and weapons than those of stone, and
that it deteriorated by degrees, then it appears suffi-
ciently evident that it was introduced.

With regard to my ethnographical essays, I am
certainly desirous that they should be submitted to
a just and fair criticism. Whatever, after a strict ex-
amination, may be found erroneous, I shall cheerfully

PREFACE. Iv

abandon; having at any rate the satisfaction of
feeling that I have given to men more learned than
myself the clue to works of greater research and
profundity than my own.

SVEN NILSSON.

Stockholm: «7u/y 1867.

'• «• ■mmtmmm^^m^^^rwmmm^i^m^^^mm^'y^v^^^mmr'^^^'^^m^mmi^^^rm^l

INTRODUCTION.*

In the present volume I have endeavoured, by a
new method, to gain a knowledge of the first inhabi-
tants of the Scandinavian Peninsula, and thus to con-
tribute in some measure to the history of the gradual
development of mankind. I feel more and more con-
vinced, that as in nature we are unable rightly to
eoocdie the importance of individual objects without
possessing a distinct view of nature, considered as a

^ whole, so are we also unable properly to understand
the signification of the antiquities of any individual
country without at the same time clearly realising
the idea that they are the fragments of a progressive
series of civilisation, and that the human race has
always been, and still is, steadily advancing in
civilisation. To this conviction we are brought by

l/éxperience, as well as by the analogy of the other
natural sciences. Geology^ namely, teaches us that
organic nature on our earth has only progressed
gradually, and by a slow development, during succes-
sive ages, and that nature's first-born living children
were the lowest and most imperfect organisms, gra-

* It is to be remembered that thiti was written for the first
edition, 1848.

Iviii INTRODUCTION.

dually succeeded by beings more and more cultivated,
until we come to the last, which are the most perfect
with which we are acquainted. Physiology teaches
us that every individual organiBin, including man,
continues to develope gradually under our very eyea
in the same manner as the whole of organic nature,
from the very lowest to the highest condition which
nature has destined it to reach.

The development which is here referred to is ap-
parently merely corporeal and material, whereas the
development of the human race is spiritual and intel-
lectual; but we ought to remember, that the cor-
poreal is not the operative or essential, but the
immaterial, concealed under it, whereof the material
^s merely the veil, visible to our outward senses. All
progressive development in nature is, therefore, in
reality the development of the immaterial, of the
spirit, of the intellect, although its material veil, its
shell only, is palpable to our eyes.

If we contemplate the subject from this point of
view, we shall doubtless arrive at the conclusion,
that, just as the whole of organic nature has unfolded
itself from that period in creation of which the earliest
productions are preserved in the transition rocks,
until the present organic period of the world, and
just as every human individual gradually developes
both corporeally and psychologically, from his first
most imperfect state until his maturity, so is also the
whole human race, notwithstanding apparent or par-
tial retrogression, constantly undergoing a gradual and
progressive development. Of this even history con-

INTRODUCTION. lix

vinces us, by showing that nations originally rude and
bai'barous have by degrees progressed to a higher
civilisation and more true humanity. It is trug that
history occasionally seems to give evidence of a
contrary result, by informing us that nations, which
formerly occupied a higher stage of civilisation than
others, have since sunk back into a ruder condition.
But we may be assured that the degree of civilisation
which a nation has once reached can never perish,
\/l)ut diffuses itself amongst others and becomes the
property of mankind in general, although its first
organs have decayed. It is seed sown in another and
richer soil, since the first no longer brings forth sound
and good fi-uit. Nations spring into existence, and,
in their turn, decline and fall; but civilisation and
humanity are steadily progressing, spreading them-
selves more and more, and will one day be dissemi-
nated over every spot inhabited by man.
In this light I have contemplated, and shall endea-
vour to work out, the subject which I have in view.

I have imagined, in order to investigate the history
of the development of the human race, that one ought
to search for the earliest traces of man's first ap-
pearance in every country ; to follow these in order
to see whither they lead, and carefully to distinguish
firom them the more recent footprints which may be
found in the same land ; thus we shall be able to
discover by degrees the migrations of the different
races in early times, and the progressive march of
civilisation through the world. But I have also
imagined that a knowledge of the primeval state of

Ix INTRODUCTION.

mankind or of its individual races, could not be
gained by the general road of history, because the
history of each nation does not begin to write its
annals until the civilisation of that nation has reached
a high point of development. All which lies behind
that period is traditional and enveloped in obscurity.
But even tradition could not have sprung into life
until the first rude wants were satisfied, and until the
scattered individuals had long constituted a united
nation and had come into hostile collision with others.
We cannot, therefore, expect to gain, either from
history or even from tradition, any knowledge of the
savage race which originally and alone appeared in
any country.

Still, it may perhaps not be impossible to extend
our researches concerning the human race farther
back than the time to which either history or tra-
dition throw their light. If natural philosophy has
been able to seek out in the earth and to discover the
fragments of an animal kingdom, which perished long
before man's appearance in the world, and, by com-
paring the same with existing organisms, to place
them before us almost in a living state, then also
ought this science to be able, by availing itself of
the same comparative method, to collect the remains
of human races long since passed away, and of the
works which they have left behind, to draw a parallel
between them and similar ones, which still exist on
earth, and thus cut out a way to the knowledge of
circumstances which have been, by comparing them
I with those which still exist. It is by following this

INTRODUCTION. Ixi

method that we shall begin to investigate this subject,
during which, however, we have at our command
more elements for comparison than the geologist; we
have not only skeletons and skulls,* but also imple-
ments, weapons, buildings, &c., all of which we shall
compare with similar objects still existing and still
in use. Farther on in our researches tradition and
superstition meet us ; the latter a religious tradition,
although, like profane tradition, it has often forgotten
its real signification. We shall avail ourselves of all
these elements as means for facilitating our researches
in order to reach the goal to which we aspire, namely,
to contribute to the history of the intellectual and
social development of the human race.

But although we may confidently hope, provided
continual researches are instituted in many countries,
to penetrate by this road far back into the earliest
history of the human race, still we can never obtain
any knowledge of the first origin of our race. Thus
far science can never penetrate. It is in this respect
the same with the whole race as with the individual ;
no mortal knows how life was kindled. Nature has
thrown a veil over this mystery, which mortal eye
cannot pierce. Natural philosophy cannot show us
how man was created. If any philosopher should
attempt to solve this problem, the answer would be
mere guesswork, and could not be the result of re-
searches made in the realms of nature. The natural

* Hitherto these have unfortunately not been preBerved as often
as might and ought to hare been the case.

Ixii INTRODUCTION.

philosopher, as such, cannot, as a result of his investi-
gations, even answer this question, whether only one
couple, man and woman, was created in the beginning,
or whether at the Almighty's command thousands
sprang into life at one and the same time ; whether
this took place only on one spot of the earth, and at
one and the same moment, or whether the life-giving
rays of the Creator's sun fell upon the dust in different
places and at different periods of time: concerning
all this the philosopher can only tell us what to him
appears to be most probable. But he can no doubt
see, that according to the idea which he generally
attaches to the word species^ the whole human race,
from pole to pole, constitutes one and the same
species, however much it may be divided into dis-
tinct (so-called) races, differing more or less both
physically and intellectually, both in outward form,
and in natural disposition.

The first origin of the human race cannot therefore
^^ become the subject of our investigations. These
cannot go farther back than to the period when man
was already scattered over the earth, and only from
this period can we trace and follow his gradual
development up to the present day.

This gradual development of the human race can
be perhaps most clearly represented under the image
of an individual in his childhood, his youth, his
manhood, and his old age. Mankind appears, then,
before our imagination first as a childy with child-
hood's lovely innocence, but in its budding develop-

INTRODUCTION. Ixiii

ment, also with childhood's guileless tricks ; • then as a
youth^ with the spirit of liberty, generosity, and frank
open honesty of juvenile years, but also with their
thoughtless rashness ; then as a man, with courage to
defend his own right and that of others, and to
execute with zeal and energy the plans which he has
formed for his sphere of activity ; and lastly, as the
old man^ more and more regulating his occupations,
cautiously weighing and calculating his enterprises,

• Should this view be correct, the natural philosopher may
imagine that there existed a period when the whole human race, as
well as the individual, possessed no articulate language,^ and that a
language was created onlj gradually, as in tlie case of children ; in the
beginning partly by interjections and partly by imitating the sounds
of the animals or objects which they wanted to denote. It may
perhaps be advanced, in confirmation of this supposition, that the
oldest languages are those poorest in words, employing one and the
same word to denote a number of various objects, and languages
have evidently arisen in the same manner as when a child begins to
form itself a language, by trying to find sounds or words for its
feelings and ideas. The child calls the dog Bow-wow^ the sheep
Baa-baa^ the cow Boo, and so on. In Greek, the sheep is called
Bå (ka), the cow Bu (z), and so on. There is in every language a
smaller or greater number of words which imitate sounds (so-called
nomina onamatopoiettca), which seem to show how a language has
sprung up. That such words constitute only a fraction of the whole
stock of words in a language, does not refute this supposition, be-
cause the only question there is, how a language has been created, and
here, as in every other case, the beginning is the most difficult part.

But be this as it may, at all events it is absurd to suppose that
the first language was poetry, I must emphatically dispute such
&ntastic opinions, and shall endeavour in the course of this work
to prove their absurdity.

' I DOW find the same idea expressed already by Diodoms Siculus, lib. i.
cap. 8, 3. ' Voce autem ad hue eonfusa et nihil significante pedetentim verba
articnlata pronuntiando, et signis unquamque rem snbjectam notando elocn-
tionem tandem remm omnium sibi notam fecerunt.'

Ixiv INTRODUCTION.

and carefully managing his property. In how far
these traits of the various stages of development of
the individual can be applied to the whole human
race, we shall eee in the following disquisition.

The earliest tribes, of which we find traces in every
country, show by what they have left behind, as far
as we have been able to discover hitherto, that they
have belonged to a race of beings standing on the very
lowest point of civilisation: mountain grottoes, sub-
terranean caves, or stone caverns, their dwellings;
rough-hewn stone-flakes, their hunting and fishing
implements ; no domesticated animals except the dog ;
no cattle, no agriculture, no written language. Be-
tween this, the lowest state in which we can imagine
human beings, and the most cultivated state of society
which they are able to attain, there are many inter-
mediate degrees or stages of development.

Every nation has had, or has, four stages to pass
through, before attaining its highest social develop-
ment. It shows itself either as savage^ as nomad^ as
agriculturist, or as possessing a written language and
coined money, and labour distributed amongst the
various members of society.

1. The savage has few other than material wants,
and these he endeavours to satisfy only for the mo-
ment. To appease hunger for the day ; when requi-
site, to protect his body against heat or cold; to
prepare his lair for the night ; to follow the instinct of
propagation, and instinctively to guard and tend his
offspring — this constitutes all his care, all his enjoy-
ment. He thinks and acts only for the day which

^■Pl^C?

INTRODUCTION. Ixv

isj not for the day which is coming. In this state
man is necessarily a hunter and fisheiman, especially
in zones where fruits and berries are scarce, or totally
wanting during the greater part of the year. The
savage has, therefore, no other alternative; he is
compelled to fish and to hunt, or he must perish. In
moments of necessity man has ample resources within
himself; the savage finds everywhere materials for
implements of fishing and the chase, and necessity
teaches him how to fabricate and employ them. The
eariiest hunting implements of stone in every coun-
try are synchronous with the first appearance of the
savage there, since he required at once the flesh of
wild animals for food, their skin for clothing, and
water for drinking. Even amongst the savages, also,
we find traces of religion. Experience gradually
awakens reflection; hunger is a troublesome guest,
but is sure to call, when for a day or two the savage
has not succeeded in killing any game. The pnident
thought then suggests itself to him of saving a portion
of the abundance of the day, and still more, that of
carrying away the young calf or fawn, whose mother
he has perhaps killed in the chase; and collecting
several more of them, and forming at last a herd, he
becomes

2. A herdsman (nomad), subsisting chiefly on the
produce of his herds; the flesh of domestic animals
his food^ milk his beverage, skins his clothes. The
chase and fishing, formerly his chiefs now beccnne his
occcLsional occupations. There are various kinds of
nomads; some of them have fixed habitations during

Ixvi INTRODUCTIOX.

all seasons, grazing their herds in the fields and in the
neighbouring forests; others have fixed habitations
only in the winter, migrating in summer with their
tents from place to place ; others, again, have no fixed
habitations, roving about continually with their herds,
living in movable huts or sheds on wheels, draum by
cattle, or in tents stretched on poles, and carried on
the back of their cattle during their wanderings.
When the grass-fodder begins to fail in one locality,
the nomad breaks up his encampment, and drives his
herds to others. There are no boundaries of posses-
sion; property is restricted to tents and herds.
Distant excursions are undertaken, frequently also
forays: the nomad is more ready to attack than to
suflfer himself to be attacked.* K very family forms
itself into a separate horde, in which the oldest
member (the father of the family) is the chieftain or
head ; the government is patriarchal. Then come tra-
dition and legend ; the art of poesy springs into life ;
nomadic life is the element of poetry ; the nomad is
the youth of the human race. The first traces of
science appear — leechcraft, botany, astronomy ( ?) ; f

* It is evident that the first nomads retained their weapons and
implements of stone, because it is not very probable that the
smelting and forging of metals can have originated amongst herds-
men. Native copper, however, can be used by the nomad as well
as by the savage. But certain it is, that the nomads which are
surrounded at a nearer or greater distance by more cultivated tribes
procure from them, by barter or by pillage, both weapons and other
implements.

\ Thus the Cbaldfiean herdsmen, who in the night tended their
flocks on large open plains, invented astronomy by obsen'iug the
motions of the stars.

JNTRODUCTIOX. Ixvii

but there is as yet no written language,* no coined
money ; trade is nothing but barter.

At last he tires of his wandering life (or, rather,
he is obliged to give it up, since the locality has
become too small for the increasing population with
its flocks) ; he builds sheds for his cattle, and lays up
stores of fodder in barns ; he bums a tract of forest-
land, and sows com in the ashes. His first field is
a place where the trees are felled^ a clearing in the
forest, and his first plough a hoe. Thus the nomad
gradually becomes

3. An agriculturist^ and takes a more stable social
position. The movable tent gives place to a perma-
nently fixed dwelling; the tilled cornfields yield a
richer harvest the more they are cultivated; the
forests surrounding his home give him fuel and
building-materials ; the fields provide him with grass
and winter fodder for his cattle, and even the waters
yield him their tribute. The owner cultivates and
guards his territory ; he has devoted all his care and
labour to it, it is his own^ he vnll and he ought to

* It appears to me probable, nevertheless, that letters may have
been invented by some tribe in this condition, as the owner's mark
upon cattle or upon tents. In the Hebrew alphabet the figure of
the first letter is taken from the ox, of the second from the house (or
perhaps the movable tent), of the third from the camel , which latter
seems to imply nomad life, or perhaps is a Phoenician mercantile
caravan custom. But tlie thorough dissimilarity of the alphabets
proves undeniably that they were invented by different tribes,
which had no intercommunication whatever. In Scandinavia, where
the first letters, no doubt, were runes, they seem to have originated
only amongst the agriculturists. Neither in the Stone Age nor in
the Bronze Age do we find a written language here in tlie NorUi.

d 2

Ixviii INTRODUCTION.

possess it for himself and for his descendants. Other
agriculturists settle in his neighbourhood ; each builds
his OAvn dwelling-house, tills his own ground, and
appropriates to himself the territory which he requires ;
territories are laid out, landmarks between properties
are set up ; the right of possession becomes more de-
fined, and comprises also the landed territory. The
patriarchal life ceases; every landowner becomes a
'man for himself In order to mark his property,*
the owner of every fixed dwelling chooses his own
private mai% his bomärke^ which is the beginning of
a written language.* Thus, the first written letter
(whether we suppose it to have been invented by the
nomad, or by the agriculturist) became a sign of
right of possession,f and probably the first Avritten
line was an agreement between neighbours relating
to mine and thine^ consequently a contract — the first
step towards a future law in a more settled state of
societjT-,

A man's cornfield and pasture-ground, his forest,
his mine, his lakes and rivers, supply most of his

. * At the late Assessor Silfverstrale's, in Stockholm, I saw, ten or
twelve years ago, a large folio, in which, during the time wlien he
presided as judge in the courts, if I recollect rightly, of the province
of Gestrikland, he had collected bomärken belonging to the various
farms in the province, which boviärken, or marks, the respective
farmers or peasants affixed, by way of signature, to public and other
documents. Some of these marks had a greater or less resem-
blance to runes. Researches in this direction might perhaps lead
to a more intimate knowledge of the invention of an alphabet in
Scandinavia.

"I* Every letter was in the beginning a hieroglyph, signifying a
vrhole word, in the Hebraic as well as in the Runic alphabet.

INTRODUCTIOX. Ixix

wants ; not indeed all, but, on the other hand, some
in auperfiuity. These superfluous things, then, can
be exchanged by barter, and his other needs thereby
be supplied; but his personal presence on his pro-
perty is constantly required; the original trade by
barter thus becomes inconvenient, perhaps impos-
sible ; some article which finds a demand everywhere,
and which within a small compass contains a large
value, is made the means of exchanging all kinds of
commodities — ^in other words, it becomes money. At
first it derives its value from its weight, but this ar-
rangement has its attendant inconveniences; these
are obviated when a piece of this article, of a fixed
weight and standard, with its value stamped thereon,
becomes coined money. With this and with the
written language the agriculturist enters upon

4. The fourth stage of civilisation, in a still better
organised state of society, where labour is divided

L amongst its various members. Diff\irent professions
(sometimes ranks so called) arise. Some men occupy
themselves in tilling the ground, working the mines,
managing the flocks, &c.; others sell supei-fluities, and
procure what is wanting by means of barter or trade
with other communities and districts ; others, again,
defend the property of the community against foreign
and domestic foes; and, lastly, others promote intel-
ligence, education, and the cultivation of the mind,
and a governor or chief is elected to watch over the
whole, and to secure and guarantee the rights of all.
Thus the nation is enabled, through the organisation
of society, to fulfil more and more completely its

Ixx INTRODUCTION.

allotted misBion — to attain the highest degree of
culture and the highest stage of civilisation.

I have deemed it incumbent upon me to draw this
little sketch, in order to give a short review of the
course of development, which I believe mankind in
geneml to have passed through from its first dissemi-
nation over the globe up to the present time. Fre-
quently the so-called savage state — the childhood of
the human race — ^is overlooked ; one begins ^ith the
poetical stage of development — the youthful age of
the human race — whereby, according to my opinion,
many erroneous ideas have unavoidably been enter-
tained, and the full unravelling of this subject, so
important to the history of the development of the
human race, has been long delayed.

In the present work I shall, as far as I may be
able, endeavour to delineate the first two of the
above-mentioned stages.

Whatever errors may be found in this work — and
it seems impossible to avoid such in a book of this
nature — I hope the courteous reader will mildly judge,
and, with his greater knowledge, set right : through
such corrections, even my very mistakes wiU be made
to tend to the further development of the subject.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAOB

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE IMPLEMENTS OF SAVAGE NATIONS AND
THE ANTIQUITIES OF STONE AND OF BONE FOUND IN SCAN-
DINAVIA ....... 1

CHAPTER II.

RETROSPECT OF THE WHOLE COLLECTION, AND AN ATTEMPT TO

DRAW FROM IT A POSITIVE RESULT . . . .92

CHAPTER HI.

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE ANCIENT CRANIA FOUND IN SCANDI-
NAVIA AND THOSE BELONGING TO THE RACES NOW LIVING
THERE . • . . . . .106

CHAPTER IV.

SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS BELONGING TO THE STONE AGE — COM-
PARISON BETWEEN THESE AND THE DWELLING-HOUSES OF THE
ESQUIMAUX . . . . . .124

CHAPTER V.

OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE ABORIGINES MADE USE OF THEIR

WEAPONS IN THE CHASE AND IN WAR . . .169

Ixxii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VL

TAOM

THE STONE AGE OF DIFFERENT NATIONS — THE SOURCE OF TRADI-
TION — DWARFS, GIANTS, GOBLINS, ETC., WERE ORIGINALLT
PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT TRIBES AND RELIGION . .191

CHAPTER VIL

ON THE PROBABLE CONDITION OF SCANDINAVIA AT THE ARRIVAL

OF THE FIRST PEOPLE . . . . , 244

NOTES BY THE EDITOR . . . .261

INDEX . . . . i . . 265

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LIST OF PLATES.

PLATE I.

Fia.

1. Stone Hammer, found in Scania.
. 2. Stone Hammer, from Green-
landy in the Copenhagen Mu-
seum.

8. Stone Hammer, from the Dela-
ware river, belonging to M.
Thomson.

4. Stone Hammer. Sweden.

6. Ditto ditto.

6. Stone Hammer, found in the

Eranke Lake, Scania.

7. Stone Hammer.

via.

8. Stone Hammer, with a groove

for string, &c.

9. Stone Hammer, with the same.

10. Ditto ditto.

11. Stone Hammer, found in a peat

bog in Scania.

12. Perforated stone Hammer.

13. Stone Hammer, from Perigord,

presented by MM. Christy
and Lartet to the Academy
of Sciences at Stockholm.

14. Stone Hammer. Sweden.

PLATE n.

15. Whetstone.

16. Ditto.

17. Boulder, probably used as a

Whetstone.

18. Probably a Whetstone.

19. Ditto.

20. Ditto.

21. Whetstone for needles, sent

from Greenland to the Anti-
quarian Museimi at Copen-
hagen.

22. Ditto ditto.

23. Flint nucleus from which flakea

have been struck.

24. Flint Flake.

25. Gimlet or Auger P

26. Fishhook of shell, from Ota-

heite, in the British Museum.

27. Wooden Fishhook, with bone

point, from the Eurile Islands.

28. Fishhook of flint, found near

Lomma on the Öresund.

29. Fishhook of flint, found on the

bank of the Kranke Lake.

30. Bone Fishhook, found in a peat

bog in South Scania.

31. Stone found in the province of

Blekinge, probably a Plum-
met.

32. Grooved Plummet

33. Plummet.

34. Ditto.

35. Grooved Plummet.

36. Flint Arrowhead.

37. Ditto.

38. Flint Arrowhead. Sweden.

39. Ditto ditto.

40. Triangular flint Arrowhead with

toothed edges. Sweden.

Izxiv

LIST OF PLATES.

PLATE ni.

no.

41. Harpoon with fixed pointy made

of bone, with a sharp stone
or shell at the point, from the
Kurile Islands.

42. Harpoon point North Ame-

rica.

43. Harpoon point of flinty found in

Scania.

44. Flint Spear.

45. Short flint Arrowhead.

46. Harpoon point. North Ame-

rica.

47. Short quartz Arrowhead.

48. Harpoon point of flint; found in

Scania.

49. Harpoon with stone point,

illustrating the mode of
attachment.

60. Bone Harpoon with immova-

ble stone point, found in an-
cient Esquimaux sepulchre
in Greenland.

61. Bone Harpoon, found in a simi-

lar sepulchre.

62. Bone Harpoon with movable

flint point, from the EurUe
Islands.
68. Bone Harpoon with movable

riQ,

64.

66.
66.

67.

68.

60.

61.
62.
63.

64.
66.

66.
67.
68.

flint pointy from the Kurile
Islands.

Flint Spearhead, from Point
Barrow, now in the British
Museum.

Spearhead from Scania.

Bone Spear, from the East
coast of Greenland, now in
the Museum at Bristol.

Spearhead from Scania.

Bone Spear, found near Hogo-
molla in Scania.

Slatestone Spear, from Kol-
märden, now in the Museum
of the Academy of Anti-
quities in Stockholm.

FliDt Knifeblade. North of
Europe.

Flint Spear. Scania.
Ditto ditto.

Flint Knife with stone handle.
Scania.

Ditto ditto.

Stone Knife, from New Zealand,
now in the British Museum.

Flint Knife. Scania.

Part of stone Knife, ditto.

Bone Spear. Sweden.

PLATE IV.

69. Bone Harpoon. Scania.

70. Bone Harpoon, from Terra del

Fuego.

71. Bone Harpoon, found in a Sca-

nian peat bog.

72. Bone Harpoon, from the Péri-

gord caves.

73. Bone Harpoon, from a bog in

South Scania.

74. Bone Harpoon, from the island

of Seeland.

76. Leittter, from the north-west
coast of North America.

76. Half of a similar Spear, also

from North America.

77. Leister, from North America,

now in the Museum at Co-
penhagen.

78. The same.

79. Half of a similar implement,

found in the peat bog of
Felsmoose, in Scania.

LIST OF PLATES.

IXXT

PLATE V.

FIG.

80. Flint Knifeblade. North of

Europe.

81. Handle of flint Knife. North

of Europe.

82. Ditto ditto.

83. Flint Knifeblade. North of

Europe.

84. Stone Knife. Scania.

85. Ditto ditto.

86. Knife obtained from the Es-

quimaux, east coast of Green-
landy now in the Briatol
Museum.

87. Semilunar Knife. Scania.

88. Ditto ditto.

89. Ditto ditto.

90. Ditto ditto.

91. Ditto ditto. Perhaps
also used as a saw.

92. Long stone toothed Arrowhead.

Sweden.

93. Ditto ditto.

94. Arrowpoint without a tang.

95. Ditto.

96. Ditto.

97. Ditto.

98. Ditto.

99. Stone Harpoon point from

America.

FIG.

100. Stone Harpoon pointy from the

north of Ireland.

101. Arrowhead. Pennsylvania.

102. Stoneheaded Arrow, now in the

British Museum.

103. Obsidian ArrowheadyfromTiena

del Fuego.

104. Arrow, from California.
106. Ditto.

106. Short stone-headed Arrow, from

Scania.

107. Short stone-headed Arrow, from

Tierra del Fuego.

108. Ditto ditto.

109. Ditto ditto.

110. Short stone-headed Arrow.

Sweden.

111. Flake stone-headed Arrow.

Greenland.

112. Arrowhead.

113. Arrow point without a tang,

found in Scania.

114. Ditto ditto.

115. Sling Stone. Sweden.

116. Sling Stone. New Zealand.

117. Ditto ditto.

PLATE VL

118. Stone Spear.

119. Ditto.

120. Stone Spear. Ohio.

121. Stone Spear. Scania.

122. JaTelin,from the Kurile Islands.

123. Iron Javelin, from Greenland.

124. Javelin. Scania.

125. Ditto ditto.

126. Ditto ditto.

127. Stone Chisel. Sweden.

128. Bone Chisel, found in Denmark,

now in the Copenhagen Mu-
seum.

129. Chisel of Nephrite, from New

Zealand, now in the British
Museum.

130. The same.

131. Bone Chisel, found in Scania,

now in the Museum at Stock-
holm.

Ixxvi

LIST OF PLATES.

PLATE YL-'Continued,

no.
132. Gouge of bone from Otaheite,

now in the Britisli Museum.
183. The same.

134. Flint Gouge, found in Sweden.
136. Stone Chisel with stone handle^

from Nootka, now in the

British Museum.

136. Stone Chisel. Scandinavia.

137. Square flint Chisel. Ditto.

138. Ditto ditto.

FIO.

139. Broad Gouge. Scandinayia.

140. Ditto ditto.

141. Ice Chisel, from the Baltic coast.

142. Axe of stone, from Pitcaim's

Island, now in Professor
Nilsson's collection.

143. Axe, from ancient tomb near

Ähus.

144. Stone Axe.

145. Axe of trap. Scania.

PLATE VIL

146. Broad basalt Gouge, from

Scania.

147. Axe of shell, from California.
14d. Stone Axe, from Scania.

149. Axe of clay slate, from Scania.

150. Axe, from Nootka, now in the

British Museum.

151. Stone Axe. Sweden.

152. Ditto ditto.

153. Flint Axe. Ditto.

154. Copper Axe. Ditto

155. Axe ' with iron blade, from

Tierra del Fuego, now in the
British Museum.

156. Copper Axe, from Scania.

157. Kough-hewn flint Axe. Ditto.

158. Flint Axe. Ditto.

159. Axe, much worn down. Ditto.

160. Ditto ditto.

161. Axe. Ditto.

162. Stone Axe. Ditto.

PLATE VIIL

163. Hammer Axe. Scania.

164. Axe. Ditto.

165. Pierced Axe. Ditto.

166. Stone Edge Tool of diorite,

found in Scania.

167. Stone Edge Tool of hornblende,

found in a bog near Lund.

168. Pierced Axe.

169. Diorite Hammer Axe^ from

Scania.

170. Shafted Wedge, made of stag's

antler.

171. Hammer of stag antlers, found

ill a peat bog in Scania.

172. Stone Axe, found in a peat bog

in Scania.

173. Amazon Axe of stone, from

South Scania, now in Nills-
Bon*s collection.

174. Ditto ditto ditto.

175. Ornament of amber. Scania.

176. Battle Axe of Stone Age, found

HI a gallery-grave.

177. Ditto ditto.

}

"■ 1^

!?■

ffm

LIST OF PLATES.

Izzvii

PLATE YUL'-cantmued.

TIO.

178. Basalt Hammer Axe^ fomid

at Hurfva.

179. Hammer Axe. Scania.

180. Basalt Hoe^ fomid in the Oja-

no.

bog, near Ystad.

181. Elk-hom Hoe, fomid in a hog

at Sjönip.

182. Pierced stone Disc.

PLATE DC.

183. Stone Wedge. • Scania.

184. Ditto ditto.

185. Stretching Implement. Ditto.

186. Implement of basalt.

187. Anvil of stone. Scania.

188. Flint Scraper.

189. Battle Axe, found in Bohusland,

now in the Museum at Lund.

190. Amber Button.
101. Ditto.

192. Stone Bead.

193. Stone Button.

194. Amber Ornament.

195. Ditto.

196. Sandstone Ornament.

197. Amber Ornament.

198. Ditto.

199. Stone Bead.

200. Ornamental bone object, found

at Bjellerup, in Scania.

201. Qlass Beads, from Scania.

202. Ditto ditto.

PLATE X.

203. Harpoon Point of flint. Scania.

204. Punch made of horn.

206. Flint Implement of uncertain
use.

206. Broken Implement, with new

hole.

207. Ditto ditto.

208. Sandstone Implement, from a

peat moss in Sonth Scania.

209. Clay Vessel, found in a tomb

near Quistofta.

210. Limestone Vessel, found in a

gravel pit

211. Dolmen of the Stone Age.

PLATE XL

212. Bone Javelin, showing the

probable mounting.

213. The same bone Javelin.

214. Hunting Whistle of hom^found

in a bog in Scania.

215. Bone Awl.

216. Ancient stone Plummet. Scan-

dinavia.

217. Stone Plummet. Pennsylvania.

218. Skull pierced by the javelin,

Fig. 213.

219. Skull pierced by the javelin,

Fig. 213.

220. Bone of the Urus, pierced by a

javelin.

221. Ditto ditto.

222. Ditto ditto.

223. Bone of Ursus Spelaeus.

224. Ditto.

225. Worn Spearhead.

226. Worn and re-sharpened Spear-

head.

Ixzviii

LIST OF PLATES.

PLATE Xn.

FIQ.

227. Swedish Cranium.

228. Ditto.

229. Ditto.

230. Brachy cephalous Cranium; from

a gallery-grave on Möen.

no.

231. BrachycephalouB Cranium, from

galleiy-grave on Möen.

232. Ditto.

233. Skull of Laplander, from Sten-

sele.

234. Ditto.

PLATE XIIL

235. Skull of Laplander, from SteD-

eele parish.

236. Cranium, from gallery-grave in

West Gothland.

237. Ditto.

238. Ditto.

239. Skull of Lapland Woman, from

Lyksele, now in the Museum
at Lund.

240. Copied from a plaster cast;
original from a gallery-grave
at Möen.

241. Bone Arrowhead, from the
Island of Oland.

242. Rough Arrowhead.

PLATE XIV.

243. Tumulus on the Plain of Axe-

valla.

244. Ditto ditto.
246. Ditto ditto.

246. Esquimaux Winter Hut in

Greenland.

247. Esquimaux Huts, east coast of

Greenland, after Scoresby.

248 -Esquimaux Hut<); east coast of
Greenland, after Scoresbv.

249. O allery-Grave on G lumslöf hills.

250. Galleiy-Tomb on the Asahögen,

near Quistofta.

261. Esquimaux Winter Huts in

Greenland.

262. Grave with Skeleton. Scania.

PLATE XV.

263. Cranium, found at StJbgenäs.

264. Ditto.
266. Ditto.

266. Hoe made of stages antler.

Scania.

267. Ditto ditto.

268. Sketch of Deer on stag's

antler, found in a bog in
South Scania.

269. Ditto ditto.
260. Rubbing Stone of flint

LIST OF PLATES.

Ixxiz

PLATE XVI.

261. Pierced Bear's Tooth.

262. Ditto Wolf.

263. Bone AwL Sweden.

264. Ditto ditto.

265. Ditto ditto.

266. Flint Arrowhead ditto.

267. Ditto ditto.
26& Ditto ditto.

FIO.

269. Piece of a ground Axe, roughly

hewn into a Chisel.

270. Stone Disc^ probably used as a

Button.

271. Cranium^ from a catacomb at

Malta, now in the Zoological
Museum at Lund.

272. Ditto.

273. Ditto.

THE

STONE AGE.

CHAPTER L

COMPABISON BETWEEN THE IMPLEMEKTS OF SAVAGE NA-
TIONS AND THE ANTIQUITIES OF STONE AND OF BONE
FOUND IN SOANDINAYIA.

Everybody is aware that in Scandinavia, as well
as in many other countries, objects of stone are
occasionally met with, which have evidently been
fashioned by the hand of man for some special pur-
pose. If we carefully examine a collection of such
antiquities, we shall not fail to recognise amongst
them forms resembling some of those implements
which are still in use, or have been used within the
memory of man, by peasants and fishermen. The im-
plements most firequently met with are the axe, the
hollow adze, the chisel, the harpoon, the arrow, and
others ; and it is scarcely possible that their nature can
be misunderstood by anyone who is acquainted with
the form of these implements when made of iron, and
who can imagine what they must be like when formed
of stone. Once convinced of this, it must be easy
to understand that people who employed stone for

2 THE STONE AGE. [Cn I.

implements of daily use must have been ignorant of
the use of metals, and were consequently in so low
a stage of human civilisation, that they resem-
bled those whom we commonly designate as sa-
vages* But if this be admitted — and it can with diffi-
culty be contested — then it is evident that the best
means of gaining an accurate and complete know-
ledge of these implements, of the manner in which
they Avere helved and used, of the work done with
them, &c., is to enquire whether similar implements
are stOl in use amongst savage tribes now living, and
to discover how they are employed ; since, if we find
amongst them implements exactly similar, both in
shape and substance, we may safely conclude that
they were used in a similar way; nor can we err
if from this we deduce that the mode of life and
the degree of civilisation of the savage races still
living is essentially similar to that of those tribes
who inhabited our Scandinavian North some thou-
sands of years ago, but have long since disappeared.

• This word is here taken in its most general sense, and com-
prehends the different degrees of civilisation, from the homeless
itinerant life in the forests to that in hordes with fixed dwellings
and burial-places. That oven the earliest inhabitants of Scandinavia
long remained in one or other of these low grades of civilisation, we
infer from the entire want of metals among the- remains of their im-
plements and arms, whereas implements formed of stone are found
in great numbers. In this respect they resembled many tribes still
living, who remain in such a low grade of civilisation as to be igno-
rant of the fabrication and use of metals, and who therefore employ
implements of stone, bone, shell, or other hard and easily accessible
substances ; which, however, they invariably throw aside as soon as
they are able to procure implements of metal.

Ch. L] our limited ethnological KxXOWLEDGE. 3

I shall endeavour to draw such a comparison as
far as it is possible to do so. But I encounter at
the very outset the great difficulty that, as far as I
am aware, not even one of the savage nations now
living has yet been studied or described from a truly
scientific, that is to say, fix)m a comparative ethnolo-
gical point of view. All that is hitherto known of them
is more or less fragmentary, and the various samples
of their implements now found in the museums of
Europe consist, for the most part, of scattered speci-
mens which have by chance fallen into the hands of
travellers, and of which the proper and principal use
is not always kno^vn. I have had an opportunity of ex-
amining, for this purpose, veiy extensive ethnological
collections in Denmark, Germany, England, France,
and elsewhere, which have been thrown open to me
with the greatest liberality ; but I must confess I have
nowhere found all that I looked for. I have, more-
over, made the acquaintance of many highly intelli-
gent scientific men abroad, who have lived a longer
or shorter time amongst savage nations. Through
them I have gathered much information of great in-
terest and importance, of which I shall avail myself
in this treatise; but none of those I have hitherto
met with have been able to enlighten me on all those
smaller matters concerning which, for the purpose of
comparison, I was anxious to obtain information.
Their answer has always been that these subjects had
not attracted their attention. In illustration of
this, I will mention one instance only ; namely, that
I have not yet seen in any ethnological collection,

B 2

4 THE STONE AGR [Ch. L

nor been able to obtain from any of those who have
visited regions where stone implements are used by
the natives, any description of the form of the
stone implement which the savages evidently made
use of in order to shape their flint speai's and arrow-
heads, and to sharpen them again when they became
blunted.*

There are thus, on the one hand, great deficiencies
in our knowledge of the implements of those savage
tribes which still inhabit Australia and America, and
on the other, new forms are constantly discovered
amongst the stone implements dug up in Sweden.
The materials available for a comparison being then
up to the present moment very imperfect on both
sides, I cannot hope, in the present case, to produce
a complete work — not even in any part of ethnology
— but merely an imperfect sketch : enough, however,
I hope, to justify my conviction that by the combined
exertions of the many, a new field for human know-
ledge can be opened through this science, and that if
ever we shall succeed in obtaining an exact knowledire
of the origin and dissemination of the various na-
tions, it must be by these means, namely, by the help
of comparative ethnology. I cannot coincide in the opi-
nion which I have fi-equently heard maintained, that
all endeavours in this direction are as yet premature :
the first attempt must always be unsatisfactorj'^, but
it induces fresh research, directs our attention to new
objects, and leads ultimately, by its very imperfec-
tions, to more profound and more complete results.f

♦ See Note 1. t This was written in 1838.

•^^^^^^^"^mKmmw9mr^m^^m^wf^^'T^gm'^;''99V9BW^i^^

Ch. I.] FLINT IMPLEMENTS— HOW FOIIMED. 5

I have said before that nobody has been able to
show me the instrument which our savage predecessors
made/use of for fashioning their stone axes and spear-
heads. Such weapons, for the most part made of
flint, and chiefly found in the earth or in peat-bogs,
have long been known in Sweden and other parts
of Europe ; but it was difficult to understand how it
had been possible to give them their shape, because
they were often made with great skill and sometimes
even with elegance. Strange as were the notions en-
tertained regarding the use to which these flint arti-
cles had been turned, they were not more strange than
the extravagant hypothesis which people set up with
regard to the manner in which they had been manu-
factured. They fancied that in past ages some means
had been discovered for softening the flint, so that it
could be wrought like wood, or any other still softer
material, and that it could thus be easily made to
take any desired form. We find ideas such as these
expressed even in old and learned antiquarian writ-
ings. When the absurdity of this had been made
manifest, it was maintained that those who manu-
factured the beautiful and elegant weapons which
were occasionally exhumed, must, at any rate, have
employed steel instruments for such a purpose ; but
as this notion, which has not yet been entirely era-
dicated, throws many difficulties in the way, not
only of the proper classification of antiquities, but also
of a true comprehension of the standard of civilisa-
tion in those nations or tribes which have fabricated
and employed these flint articles, I feel justified in

6 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

endeavouring to refute the idea. We have in Sweden
many beautiful flint knives, &c., which have been
found in the gallery -graves in West Gothland, and
which, therefore, owe their existence to an age far
anterior to the discovery of metal of any kind. This
seems to be an incontestable proof that the said flint
articles, though elegantly shaped, were made with
stone instruments. We must therefore look for such
instruments amongst the stone antiquities.

When, more than forty years ago, I first began
to collect, I found here and there stones which
had evidently been fashioned by the hand of man
for some special purpose, and which showed dis-
tinct traces of strokes or knocks against some other
equally hard, but more brittle stone. Having from
my earliest youth made a practice of chipping flint-
stones, and giving them any shape which I desired, I
was able to recognise in these stone hammers the
instruments by means of which the flint weapons had
in ancient times been made. I hope the reader will
not take it amiss if I refer to my own experience,
gained a great many years ago, more especially since,
so far as I know, I was the first who directed attention
to the instrument by means of which flint implements
were made : and I think it important to have a know-
ledge of this instrument in order to be able to form a
clear idea of the degree of civilisation of the people
by whom these articles were made. I shall here take
the liberty of stating the means by which I gained
this knowledge. From my earliest youth I have had
an irresistible taste for hunting and sporting, and

Ch.i.] flint implements— how formed. 7

during more than twenty years I made use of a fowl-
ing-piece with the old-fashioned flint lock. I never
bought my gun- flints, because, when a boy, I used
a small gun, which no purchased flints would fit.
Besides, the screw of the cock was fixed in such a
manner that I was obliged to knock a semicircular
notch into the back of the flint for the reception of
the screw, in order to hold the flint firmly. For this
reason I always chipped the flints myself, generally
while on my shooting excursions, which I then made
in the south of the province of Scania, where flint-
stones are abundant. Whenever in want of a gun-
flint, I first selected a large flint; I then looked
out for a boulder of a suitable size, and of compact
hard granite, or quartz-sandstone; with this I split
the flint into flakes, more or less thin, and of course
with sharp edges. Having selected one or more
splinters suitable for my purpose, I went to a large-
sized granite-stone, using it as a support for the
splinter, which I held in my left hand, while with my
right, in which I held the hammer- stone, I managed,
by means of some projecting comer or blunt point of
the same, to chip the edges of the splinter into a gun-
flint of the desired form; lastly, I knocked out the
notch for the screw in the back of the flint. But
it was of the utmost importance that, during the
operation, the point of the splinter on which I was
operating should rest upon the support, as otherwise
the splinter would instantly break. My habit of
shaping the flint in this way, by means of a piece of
granite or quartz sandstone, enabled me at once to

8 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

recognise the stone hammer which the aborigines of
Scandinavia made use of to chip out their flint imple-
ments. The first which attracted my attention was
that drawn on PL I. fig. 6. It consists of a hard
quartz-sandstone, and, when found in the Eranke
Lake, in Scania, bore marks which looked as fresh
as if they had only been made a day. It is now
preserved in the Museum at Lund, and shows
clearly how it was used. Necessity taught me this
art, and necessity was also the teacher of the first
inhabitants of Sweden. All their flint axes were
at first shaped, often very tastefully (PI. VII.
fig. 157), by means of a large hammer-stone before
they were gi-ound. Eveiy flint implement, indeed,
shows the way in which it was made. Take, for
instance, the fish-hook (PI. 11. fig. 28), which was
first by a single stroke chipped off as a flake from
the flint-block; the workman then resting it on
a firm support, and chipping out first one flat side
and then the other. I presume that he began by
knocking or chipping out the concave side, as the
most difficult ; but if in doing this he had not been
exceedingly careful to keep the point upon which
he waa operating resting upon the supporting stone,
the hook would instantly have broken. In the same
manner were made the square-edged arrow-heads
(PI. II. figs. 36, 37) from flint-flakes, by first dividing
them into lengths and then fashioning the edges of
each piece; in the same manner also, the base, or
hind part of the arrow-points was chipped into shape.
But the edges of the javelin-heads, spears, and knives

ipii ji>wiikw«a H^w^^i«^p*-«r-^pi^^«^^iWH>. ^^rw^^B^v^^^Ri^v— ^^^«^^^

Ch. I.] FLINT IMPLEMENTS— HOW FORMED. 9

(PI. III. and IV.) were cut out off-hand, and with-
out any support, although, probably, no one would
now be able to make so good a flint knife as some of
the better ones here dra^vn. Still, I consider it very
probable that if a person had practised such opera-
tions from his youth, he might even now attain the
same proficiency as the savage of former ages. It
would be very interesting to know if those who con-
sider iron and steel to be indispensable in the forma-
tion of flint instruments believe that any one provided
with the very best steel instruments could form a flint
knife — such, for instance, as that represented on PL
III. figs. 64, 66. I do not believe it. It is not the
cutting instrument, but the knack and practice that
are wanting. The reason why amongst the flint im-
plements which have been brought away from the
savages on the American and South Sea Islands, the
instrument with which they cut out their tools has so
very rarely been found, is, probably, that the savage,
after having used for the purpose a common pebble
picked up from the ground, threw it away, since
he was always sure of finding another equally fit
for the purpose whenever he wanted it. I have, how-
ever, found, that amongst many, although perhaps
not all, savage tribes, there were individuals who
made for themselves special knocking-stones, and it
is remarkable that these are everywhere very similar
in form. After this short introduction, we will pro-
ceed to consider :

10 THE STONE AGE. [Cn.I.

DIVISION I. — TOOLS BY MEANS OF WHICH OTHER TOOLS
AND WEAPONS OF STONE WERE MADE.

We have already mentioned that the former must
have been made of stone, because those who made and
employed them were ignorant of the use of metals.
We have likewise pointed out that all stone imple-
ments were first rough-hewn before being ground,
and we shall hereafter show that the savage, when his
spears, knives, and other stone implements became
blunted, sharpened their edges, which had previously
not been ground, but merely chipped to an edge ; we
shall also show that the sharpened edges, when
blunted, were again sharpened.

The savage must therefore have had two diflFerent
kinds of instruments, one used for sharpening the edges
of his implements by chipping them, and another
for grinding them. For this purpose he must have
been in possession of instruments which were port-
able, so that he could carry them with him while
hunting. Thus, amongst objects of antiquity, there
will necessarily be found two kinds of instruments ; one
intended to chip out or rough-hew the edge, and the
other to sharpen it when blunt. Both kinds invariably
consist of hard stone, mostly of quartz, and occasionally
of pure crystalline quartz, or of quartz-sandstone, but
rarely of flint or gneiss. The former we shall call ham-
mer-stones^ or chipping-stones^ and the latter whetstones.

§ 1. Hammer-stones {?\. I. figs. 1-14). — There are
antiquaries who would deny that the stone imple-

Ch. L] IIAMMER-STONES. 11

ments here represented and described were used in
the manner just mentioned; but I have never heard
anyone able even to guess for what other purpose
they were used. As grindstones for iron they do not
answer; and the marks of blows found on them
were, as must be evident to everyone not totally
ignorant of the subject, occasioned by blows on some
hard brittle stone; not against any kind of metal
whatsoever. Similar chipping-stones are, besides,
found, from the pole to the equator, among all
nations who use stone implements. The only
objection to my view is, that similar stones have
been found among iron articles. I have hinted
that possibly these were amulets. That they were
grindstones for iron arms is, as above stated, utterly
impossible. It rests with the doubter, therefore, to
specify for what purpose they were used, according
to his opinion. On all these stones, and especially
on the originals of figs. 1, 4, 6, 11, &c., we find
at the edges marks of the purpose to which they
were formerly applied, so unmistakable, that, when
once pointed out, no further doubts can be enter-
tained on the matter. For reasons which I shall
state more explicitly farther on, I am of opinion that
all hammer-stones, without exception, were portable,
and that the savage was in the habit of carrying
them with him while hunting. For this purpose some
of them' (figs. 8-10) have a groove or furrow running
along the outline, round which probably a string was
passed, by means of which the stone was tied to the
belt ; others are for the same purpose pierced through

12 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. I.

(fig. 12), and others again, without either groove or
hole through the centre, were probably carried in a
pouch attached to the belt or otherwise. I have
already mentioned, that this kind of chipping instru-
ment is found in all places inhabited now or for-
merly by savage people. PI. I. fig. 2 is a sketch of a
hammer-stone from Greenland, the original of which
is preserved in the Museum at Copenhagen. In
shape it very closely resembles one found in Scania
(fig. 6), and with regard to the indentation on the
flat sides, another (fig. 1), also found in Scania.
PL I. fig. 3 is from a plaster cast, received from
Mr. Thomsen in Copenhagen ; it is turnip-shaped, an-
nularly compressed, badly hewn, and with a slightly
indentated groove on one side. To this cast a label
was attached, on which was written, * Tool for making
ArroW'points.^ The stone is said to have been found
on the shores of the Delaware River, together with a
great number of wrought flint articles. Hammer-
stones have also been found amongst the flints and
bones discovered by Messrs. Christy and Lartet in the
caves of Perigord, which undoubtedly belong to a
very early age and the first inhabitants of Europe.
PI. I. fig. 13 is copied from a plaster cast in a large
collection of antiquities which these gentlemen pre-
sented to the Academy of Sciences, History, and Anti-
quities at Stockholm. It is a simple boulder, on the
rounded edges of which are seen distinct traces of
blows or knocks against some hard object, probably a
flint-stone, indicating the purpose for which it was em-
ployed, and showing that it had been used with force.

ch. l] hammer-stones. li

If I am not mistaken, M. Lartet found a similar stone
among the antiquities in the cave at Aurignac. All
the others figured in the plate have been found in
Sweden, and the majority of them in Scania. I divide
the hammer-stones into two classes: —

1. To the first class belong those which have a
fiirrow or notch, more or less distinct, on each of
their two flat sides. In all those having a groove
round the edge this notch lies with its front end
more or less obliquely towards the left, and with
the other end obliquely towards the right (figs. 8,
9, 10) ; this notch has, therefore, just that direction
which would have been given to it if the stone had
been tied by a strap to the belt, and if the person
wearing the belt had held the stone in his left
hand, and with the right hand had drawn the edge of
his knife or spear across the stone. It is my opinion
that this notch was not made by actual grinding,
because I do not find the points of arrows, spears,
and knives, or other hewn edge-tools, ground ; but it
may have been produced in this manner : the edges of
the tools having been sharpened, by knocking them
with the edge of the hammer-stone, they may have
been drawn across the flat side of the stone, in order
to make their teeth of an equal length. When through
a magnify ing-glass we examine a flint knife or spear-
point, not used after being sharpened, we feel
strengthened in this belief: still, it is a mere suppo-
sition, a mere probability, and must remain so until
something similar can be shown in the stone imple-
ments, of which, for instance, even now the North

14 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. L

American Indians make use for fashioning their flint
spear and arrow-points, and which, as we shall see,
perfectly resemble those found here. Meanwhile, in
whatever manner this notch may have been made,
it is certain that the stone was used for chipping or
shaping flint implements: this is distinctly seen in
them all, especially in those which have no groove
round the edge, and which, consequently, have not
been attached to a string or strap, and with which,
therefore, heavier blows could be dealt. The origi-
nals of the sketches (PI. I. figs. 1-7, &c.) have no
groove, the narrow sides consisting of a flat-ground
even surface, forming an angle, or rounded edge,
with flat broader sides. It is on the narrow side, or
edge, especially in figs. 1, 4, 6, 9, 11, &c., that we find
unmistakable marks of strokes dealt with it upon
the flint tools, flint being equally hard, but much
more brittle than quartz-stone, of which the hammer-
stone consists. These marks we see on both side-
edges, and they are particularly evident at the corners,
with which the heaviest blows have been dealt. It is,
moreover, very remarkable, that while, as mentioned
above, the notch invariably lies more or less obliquely
upon those stones which are surrounded by a groove,
and which have been tied to the belt by a string or
strap, it always, on the contrary, lies lengthwise upon
those which are without a groove, and which therefore,
while they were used, were not attached to any string
(PI. I. figs. 6, 7). Those hammer-stones which have a
notch on the side are of various shapes. They are some-
times, as already mentioned, provided with a groove

Ch. L] hammer-stones. 15

round the edge (figs. 8, 10), and sometimes, but very
rarely, the groove is double. Frequently both sides
are of equal length ; but sometimes one side is longer
than the other (fig. 8). All are generally elliptical,
and more or less tapering towards both ends ; or they
are oval and rounded, as in fig. 10. In some instances
they are without a similar groove, being bordered
instead by a perfectly flat surface (fig. 7). They are
occasionally (as in fig. 7) egg-shaped, and sometimes
square (as in fig. 6).

It has been supposed by some that the hammer-
stones in this last group belong to the Iron Age, on
account of their never having been found in the old
Stone Age sepulchres. But it is certain that these
hones^ consisting cf a hard kind of stone, most fre-
quently of quartz or of quartz-sandstone, could never
have been employed for sharpening implements made
of iron. Moreover, they always show distinct marks
of blows against some hard stone.

2. Amongst the second group of portable hammer-
stones we class those which are provided with two
or more round indentations, in order that they may
be held more securely between the fingers while being
used (PI. I. figs. 1-5). If we examine such a stone
more minutely — for instance, the original of fig. 4 — it
is scarcely possible that we should mistake the pur-
pose for which it was used. We see on its edges
the most distinct traces of blows against some other
hard stone, while the sides are perfectly smooth and
untouched. This is so evident that it cannot escape
our notice when we have once perceived it. We find

16 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. I.

some hammer-stones which have only one indentation
on each side; these are partly oval (fig* 1). The in-
dentations go occasionally quite through the stone (fig.
12), partly spherical (fig. 14), partly square (fig. 2).
"We also find others provided with several indentations,
and of these some are nearly spherical, or of a round
cubical form, with six indentations (fig. 5) ; others are
of an oblong cubical form (fig 4). All these tools arc
made of hard and heavy stones, and to all of them
the savage has, by chipping, sharpening, and drilling,
given the form which he considered to be the most
suitable. We will now endeavour to describe how
he sharpened and drilled them.

On the banks of his fisheries he picked up a flat-
tened silicious stone, rounded by the action of water,
and this he employed as a hammer-stone ; sometimes
he drilled an excavation in the sides of it (such a
pebble is in my collection), but at other times he did
not even take this trouble, but used the pebble as a
hammer-stone just as he found it on the bank. Such
a pebble used as a hammer-stone is the original of
fig. 1 1 . This pebble, or small boulder, found at the
bottom of a peat-bog in Scania, close to a stone axe
and flint spear, bears unmistakable marks of having
been used for the above-mentioned purpose. It ap-
pears that the hammer-stone found in the caves of
Perigord (fig. 13) was of the same substance.

§ 2. Whetstones (PI. XL figs. 15-22).— These con-
sist, as we have previously stated, of a quartzy kind
of stone, frequently of quartz-sandstone, belonging
to the old transition sandstone, occurring in strata

Ch. i.] whetstones. 17

near Cimbritshamn, Gladsax, Andrarum, and Harde-
berga, in Scania, and in many other places. On
the whetstones we always find distinct marks of
sharpening or grinding. They vary considerably in
size and shape. The majority have not been portable,
but have been lying in or beside the huts of the
natives. Some of them, however, are small, flat or
annular ; such a stone may have been carried in the
pouch on hunting excursions. Occasionally large hard
sandstone blocks are met with, on which we find in-
dentations which evidently cannot have arisen from the
action of metal, but must have been produced by stone
grinding. A block of this kind is preserved at Barse-
bäck, and belongs to the collection of the late Rev.
Mr. Hofverberg. Such whetstones have, of course, no
definite form, but they are so far interesting, that,
when found in their original position, we can be sure
that a savage who has used flint tools has lived in the
neighbourhood. The largest whetstone which I pos-
sess is of the last-mentioned hard sandstone, and was
found near Andrarum. It is an oblong square, about
2 feet long, 1 1 inches broad, and 7 J inches thick, and
has, on one of its broad sides, a smooth indentation
(the effect of grinding), running lengthwise, almost of
the same length and breadth as the stone itself.

The majority of these whetstones are oblong, poly-
gonal, thin in the middle and thicker at the ends ;
some of them are from 14 to 15 inches in length (PL
11. fig. 15). The ground surfaces, running length-
wise, are plane, concave, or convex. Lying beside
the whetstones one sometimes finds gouges, which

18 THE STONE AGE, [Ch.I.

exactly fit the concave excavations, showing that
these are due to the process of sharpening. These
whetstones have sometimes the same shape as a
thick thigh-bone; and whenever we hear of a very
large petrified bone bemg found in the earth, we
may be certain that it is nothing else than such a
whetstone.

Whetstones are occasionally short and nearly
square, but always thinnest in the middle, the surface
lengthwise being sometimes plane, sometimes con-
cave, as in PI. 11. fig. 16, the original of which is
9 inches long. I have another in my possession
which is only 4 inches long and 1 inch thick, the four
sides being plane, or very little rounded. A large
oblong boulder (fig. 17) has sometimes been used by
the savages as a whetstone. All those now described
are of the above-mentioned hard quartz-sandstone ;
but I have also one which is of crystalline quartz and
8^ inches long.

It is evident that stone implements have been not
only used but also made in those regions where
these whetstones have been found. I may, therefore,
remark, that these antiquities are found in the earth,
at the bottom of fens or bogs, in rivers, lakes, and so
on ; not only on plains and in the coast districts
of Scania, viz., Hardeberga, Flädie, Hög, Ahlstad,
Yngsjö, &c., but also in the interior of the country ;
for instance, at Bleckemåsa, where, however, as far as
I am aware, no stone implements have hitherto been
found. But such whetstones are not peculiar to
Scania. I have one in my possession which was

Ch, i.] whetstones. 19

found in Småland, in the neighbourhood of the town
of Grenna, and of the same kind of sandstone as that
found in situ in Visingö. It is 5^ inches long by
about 2 inches in thickness.

We also find granite stones, 3-6 inches thick,
26-28 long, and 12-14 broad, the upper sides of
which have a smooth indentation, more or less dis-
tinct, arising from grinding. They are still occa-
sionally found embedded in the earth, and are occa-
sionally employed as troughs for watch-dogs at farms.
That they are antiquities there can be no doubt. It
is believed that the large flint axes (PI. VII. fig.
158) and the ground wedges (PL IX. fig. 183) have
been worked upon them.

To this section belong also, according to my opinion,
those portable stones which have been called, although
erroneously, touchstones (PL II. figs. 18-20). That
they have not been used for assaying metals is evident
from their being found in certain graves which are far
older than the use of metals in the North. If gold and
silver had been known to the people who used axes
and chisels of stone, ornaments of amber, and vessels
of clay, these metals would certainly have been found
as well as such implements and ornaments ; but this
has hitherto never been the case. It is, moreover,
easy to convince oneself that they were used as whet-
stones, because one finds now and then some with
engraved ornaments round the edges ; and these orna-
ments have been, more or less, worn away towards the
point, evidently by grinding. It is easy to see, when

c 2

20 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

we have once been made aware of this circumstance,
that they have all been worn away exactly in the
same manner. This cannot possibly be owing to the
assaying of metals, because, in assaying metals, it is
the metal and not the stone which is worn. The
stone in question must, therefore, have been a kind
of whetstone. There is almost always a drilled
conical excavation at the square-hewn end, and one
or two such excavations on the sides, all three of
which converge towards one point. We see from this
that a strap, or some kind of string, was passed
through each of these side holes, and was probably
fastened to the stone by a knot, and that the stone
was in that manner carried at the belt. Occasionally
the stone is thinner towards the top end, with a hole
right through it. Future discoveries may perhaps
show whether these so-called touchstones were not,
after all, used by the females as whetstones for their
needles, &c., which were probably of bone. But
still more satisfactory light will be thrown on this sub-
ject when the implements of the North American
Indians, and above all those of the Esquimaux, are
more carefully examined.

Some very similar stones (PI. II. figs. 21, 22) have
been sent from Greenland to the Antiquarian Museum
in Copenhagen. They are numbered 3872, 3925.*

♦ Since the above was written, Mr. Thomsen has informed me
that these stones were used in Greenland by the women as grind-
stones for their bone needles. This confirms what has ab*eady been
said about the signification of similar antiquities found here in the
earth.

Ch. r.] . FISH-HOOKS. 21

DIVISION II. — ^IMPLEMENTS FOR HUNTING AND

FISHING.

Having seen with what instruments the savages in
Scandinavia made and shai*pened their implements,
we will now proceed to examine what kind of imple-
ments these were, and what were the habits of their
owners, as indicated by them.

We will divide and describe specifically the dif-
ferent kinds of implements, to show that they were
not chiefly or entirely weapons of war, as was formerly
believed. We will begin with those which were evi-
dently used for peaceable and household purposes,
and which could not have served as weapons of war,
but undoubtedly evince that the ancient savages here
in the North lived by fishing and hunting.

§ 1. Fish-hooks. — Having seen above that the ex-
isting tribes of savages are, or at any rate were
lately, using instruments for fashioning their imple-
ments similar to those employed by the Scandi-
navian savages in remote ages, we will begin by
describing the fish-hooks, &c., used by the savages of
the present day, and then proceed to compare them
with those of the savages of former times which have
been found here.

1. PL II. fig. 26 represents a fish-hook of shell
from Otaheite^ preserved in the British Museum.

2. Fish-hook of Woodj with Point of Bone (PI. II,
fig. 27). — This one is from the Eurile Islands. It is
easy to understand that in countries situated in the
colder zones, where no shells are found so hard and

22 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

thick as to be fit for being made into fish-hooks, these
must necessarily have been made of some other hard
substance, as, for instance, of wood, bone, or stone.
Those found in the graves of the Greenland Esqui-
maux are generally made of bone. Such fish-hooks
are preserved in sevei-al ethnological museums ; and
even within the memory of man the inhabitants of
Lapland used to fish for perch with a wooden hook.
It is evident, therefore, that the Scandinavian abo-
rigines, who did not know the use of metals, must
have fiibricated their fish-hooks out of such hard
substances as were obtainable ; but it is clear that
those which were made of wood must all have de-
cayed; those, on the contrary, made of flint — ^in the
art of working which the Scandinavian savage showed
great skill — have, even when lying in marshes or in
water, been able effectually to resist the influence
of time. But as most of the fish-hooks were probably
of wood, with a point of bone or stone, we can easily
explain the reason why they are so very rarely found
among our antiquities.

Meanwhile, in later years, and since archaeology has
begun to receive attention, at least two fish-hooks of
flint have been found in Scania, both on the banks of
the water in which they were used.

3. Fish-hooks of Flint — The first of these (PI. II.
fig. 28) was found near Lomma, on the shore of the
sound (Öresund). It is in length, from the middle of
the end of the shaft to the bend of the hook, about
1 inch 5'', and in breadth, from the outside of the
shaft to the outside of the hook, about 1 inch 4f'. At

Oh. i.] fish-hooks. 23

the top it is thick and broken oflf straight, and below
the thick end there is a scarcely noticeable incision, or
neck, round which to tie the line. It tapers down-
wards to the point, and has been chipped on both sides
towards the front and back ; it has, therefore, as we see,
been fashioned with some skill to answer its purpose.
Nobody who has seen the fish-hooks of bone,
wood, or shell, made by savages, can entertain the
least doubt that this one has been used for the same
purpose. It is even possible to say, with tolerable
.„ judging froL it. «^ .ad the pl«» whe,.
it was found, what description of fish was principally
caught with it. Amongst the fish indigenous to the
sound (Öresund), on the shore of which it was picked
up, it would have been too large for the mouth of
eels, flounders, or whiting, but it is suitable in eveiy
way for the Öresund codfish (Gadus callarias^ Lin.),
and this species of fish is still caught by hooks, here
and elsewhere. There is little doubt, therefore, that
the said flint fish-hook was used in ancient times
for cod-fishing in the sound. The other fish-hook
of flint (PL 11. fig. 29) was found on the bank of
the Kranke Lake, near Silfäkra. It is smaller, the
length scarcely exceeding 1 inch 1'', and the breadth,
from the outside of the shaft to the outside of the
hook, not quite 6''. It has likemse been chipped
in front and back, and the shaft widens at the top
to allow the line to be tied to it. It has been used
for catching smaller fish than the former. The
Kranke Lake is still stocked with perch and eel, and
an experienced angler has assured me that one would

24 THE STONE AGK [Ch. I.

still be able to catch these kinds of fish with this
very hook.

A fish-hook of hone has also lately been found in one
of the old peat-bogs in the south of Scania (PL 11.
fig. 30). It is 3 inches long, and about f inch from
the point of the barb to the bar. The bar and the
bend are nearly round, and flattened a Uttle towards
the top, which is broad, for the purpose of fastening
the line.

It was found in a bog containing fresh water, and
has no doubt been used for catching pike, of which
enormously large skeletons have been found in the
bogs in Scania. I know no other fresh- water fish in
Scania for which such a large sized hook could have
been used. It appears that fish-hooks made of the
horns of the ox were used in Homer's time.*

§ 2. Fishing-plummets. — Everybody practised in
the art of angling is aware that, besides the hook,
a plummet is used, especially when fishing in the
open sea, or in deep waters with a strong current.
We have nowadays generally recouj-se to lead, but
before metals were known stones must have sup-
plied its place.f It is worthy of notice, and it seems
to me to prove with how little method ethnographical
collections have been, generally, got up, that al-
though we find in them hundreds of fish-hooks,

* Odyss, xii. 253.

t That plummets of stone were long used here in the North, when
fishing with the hook, we learn from an ancient Fcsroe song, printed
in \he Antiquarisk Tidskrift for 1852, page 312, where it says of one
who was fishing, ' He lost both hook and stone.*

Ch. i.] nSinNG-PLUMMETS. 2Ö

which have belonged to the savages on the islands
of the Pacific, yet I have never succeeded in find-
ing amongst them a single plunmiet.* I have seen
only one in the British Museum, brought from
Otaheite, and used for catching cuttlefish. The
fishermen on the coast of Greenland use a so-called
pilk of bone, provided with iron hooks, and with a
stone pierced through it to serve as a plummet.
Plummets for proper fish-hooks firom Greenland I
have not yet seen; but I was some years ago in-
formed by a person who has long resided in Green-
land, how the stones were formed which were used
by the natives as plummets. He drew a sketch of
one, which is still in my possession. Subsequently,
a student presented me with a stone (PI. II. fig. 31)
of exactly the same shape as that represented in the
sketch just mentioned. This stone was found in the
earth m the province of Blekinge. It has very evi-
dently been used as a plummet; but it is also easy to
understand that this kind of implement must exist
under a great variety of forms. But they must all
have this in common : either a groove in which the
line could be tied, or a hole pierced through for the
same purpose ; in other respects, their form may be
either oblong, or round and short.

Those ancient plummets which occur most com-
monly are of the form seen in PI. II. figs. 33, 34,

* This was written in 1838 ; possibly these plummets maj now
be found in the museums. I have, however, since obtained the stone
sketched on PL XI. fig. 217, which undoubtedly has been a plum-
met : it was brought from Pennsylvania.

26 THE STOXE AGE. [Ch. L

PL XI. fig. 216, oval, or ovally rounded, and with a
groove round the middle. They have been called
sling-stones^ but this is a mere supposition, especially
as nobody has shown, or even endeavoured to show,
any similar forms of sling-stones found amongst those
nations who still use such missiles. I shall prove in
the sequel, that amongst our stone antiquities there is
in reaUty a form, hitherto overlooked, which in every
point resembles the ancient Greek sling-stones of lead
and those of stone used by the Indians in America.
But whether these sling-stones belong to the very re-
mote age which is here in question, deserves a more
careful investigation.

Other plummets have a groove along the middle
(PI. II. fig. 32) ; others have not only one across the
middle, but also one or two such grooves, crossing
each other lengthwise (PI. II. fig. 35). These plum-
mets are generally large, and have probably been
used as weights for trolling-nets, &c. They are still
occasionally picked up in islets and reefs on the
coast of Bohus-Län (west coast of Sweden).

For plummets^ as well as for sling-st07ies^ no doubt
smooth pebbles were chosen ; such as were easily and
abundantly found. I do not believe that for either
of these implements sharp flints could have been
used. Every person acquainted with the subject
would consider them useless, as they would soon
have cut through the fishing-line or the sling.

Next in order to the method of fishing with the
hook and plummet, we come to that with the harpoon.

§ 3. The harpoon is a common fishing and hunting

Ch. t.] harpoons. 27

implement among those savages who inhabit islands
and the sea-coast. It can be used only in the water,
where it is thrown in order to fasten in the animal
which is to be caught. Its purpose is not to kill
the prey, but to check its career in the water, so that
it may be more easily approached and killed with
another weapon, the spear^ which we shall describe
farther on.

Harpoons occur under a variety of forms, but they
all resemble each other in this respect, that they are
provided ^th b^ by which iheL.run.ent Jtena
in the animal which it has pierced. Harpoons may be
divided into two kinds: harpoons with movable and
harpoons with immovable points. To the former be-
long those represented on PI. III. figs. 52, 53; to
the latter, PL III. figs. 41, 50, 51, and PI. IV. figs.
69-72. We shall begin with the simplest kind. These
are: —

1. Harpoons with immovable Points (PI. III. figs.
50, 51, the sketches being half the natural size). —
Both were found in ancient Esquimaux sepulchres in
Greenland. The one (fig. 51) is entirely of bone, the
other (fig. 50) of bone tipped with a point of stone,
lancet-shaped with sharpened edges ; on the side are
two holes meeting within, through which passes a
strap fastened to the shaft, and several fathoms long,
the other end of the strap being attached to a large
bladder made of an inflated seal-skin. At the lower
end of the harpoon is a hole into which the top of the
shaft is inserted, fastening the harpoon to it in such a
way that when its point is embedded in the animal.

28 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

the shaft is disengaged, and lies floating on the water.
The wounded animal darts off under the water, but
the bladder to which the harpoon-line is fastened
floats on the surface, showing the direction in which
the animal is swimming. It is soon exhausted, when
it rises to the surface to rest or to breathe. The
hunter, in his ' kayak,' or small canoe, then hastens
to approach his prey, and tries to inflict the death-
blow by means of the spear (PI. III. fig. 54), fast-
ened to the top of a long pole.

PL III. fig. 41 represents a harpoon from the
Kurile Islands ; it is of bone, with two barbs on one
side, and with a sharp stone or shell inserted in a
groove at the point ; below is the strap by which it is
fastened to the shaft, which fits on to its lower end.
Harpoon- points of flint, exactly like this one from the
Kurile Islands, are also found here in Scania (PI. III.
figs. 43, 48).

Similar harpoons of many varieties, both of bone
and of wood, are found amongst savages. They are
always provided with a smaller or greater number
of barbs at the side. The stone points vary also in
shape; sometimes they are as in PI. III. figs. 45, 47.
Such are likewise found in Scania, especially in the
sand upon the shore between Ystad and Ahus. The
broad head seems to indicate that they have been
harpoons rather than arrow-heads. On PI. V. fig.
100, I have sketched such an antique harpoon-point
from the north of Ireland; and on the same Plate,
fig. 99, is a similar one from America.

It appears to me certain that PL X. fig. 203 has

ÖH. I] HARPOONS, 29

been the stone point of a harpoon, similarly con-
structed. A person who had long resided in Green-
land recognised it at once as such; and in order
to show me the way in which the stone point had
been fastened to the harpoon, and the harpoon to the
shaft, he provided it with a piece of wood as repre-
sented in the sketch, PI. III. fig. 49. At the lower
end of this piece of wood is an indentation into which
the shaft of the harpoon enters. Below is the loop
by which the harpoon is attached to the shaft as well
as the strap, to the end of which a bladder is tied.
This harpoon-point of flint (PI. X. fig. 203) was
found in the earth near the sea-shore of the sound of
Lomma, in Scania. PI. III. figs. 42, 46, appear to me
to be also harpoon-points. I received the originals
from His (then) Royal Highness Prince Christian
of Denmark (afterwards King Christian VIII. ), in
whose exceedingly rich museum was also preserved
a collection of stone antiquities, found in North
America, and which, according to the information
received therefrom, belonged to a tribe which was
extirpated ninety or a hundred years ago.*

Harpoons of bone^ sharp pointed, with barbs on one
side, are occasionally found in our ancient peat-bogs
in Scania. Such a one is seen on PL IV. fig. 71.
This harpoon-point appears, like those from Green-
land, to have been fastened to its long shaft in such

* It is verj remarkable that all these antiquities, as has been
mentioned before, are exactly like those which are foxmd here in
Europe. An antiquarian research in those parts of America where
they are found would be of the greatest interest to ethnology.

«0 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

a manner as to be disengaged therefrom when it stuck
fast in the harpooned animal, because above the
point of attachment is a projection over which the
strap or line seems to have been tied. It was found
in Scania in a bog near the sea-coast. It may have
been used for hunting seals, or small whales, or other
similar animals. Meanwhile, it is very remarkable
that amongst the objects which Messrs. Christy and
Lartet have found in the caves of Perigord, and
which may be considered as being among the most
ancient traces of man in Europe, are harpoons of
bone, which seem to have been helved in the same
manner (PL IV. fig. 72). Other harpoons of bone
(PI. IV. fig. 69) are likewise found in Scanian bogs,
like the former, fig. 71, but showing traces of having
been helved in a somewhat diflferent manner, namely,
by the point of bone being fastened to the handle.
A great number of bone harpoons, more or less like
this one, are to be seen in the British Museum (PI. IV.
fig. 70), all from Tierra del Fuego, labelled, * Heads
of Fishing-spears used by the Natives of Tierra del
Fuego.^^ We thus see that these bone points are
really fishing-harpoons. The length of those from
Tierra del Fuego is 9f to 15f inches. Those from
Scania are from 9f to 12^ inches in length. They
are thus alike both in length and shape, and there is
therefore every reason to assume that they were
destined for nearly the same purpose. But we are
not aware how they were used in Tierra del Fuego,

♦ See also Prehistoric Times, fig. 156, page 436.

Ch. i.] harpoons. 31

whether they were shot from a bow, thrown by the
hand, or used for striking, because we have not seen
in the British Museum,* or elsewhere, any specimen
having a shaft.f We ought also to reckon amongst the
harpoons of bone sketched on PL IV., figs. 73 and 74,
both found in bogs ; the former in the south of Scania,
the latter in the island o£ Seeland; one rather like
the latter was also found in Scania, in the parish of
Tryde, and is preserved in my late collection in Lund.
2. Harpoons with movable Points (PI. III. figs. 52,
53). — These are of a more complicated construction
than the former. The flint point, lancet-shaped, is
fixed in a round bone shaft, ending in two points,
between which points is a hole, into which the end
of the central piece projects. Through the side holes
goes a strong strap, made of sinews, which connects
the two pieces of bone together. Round them and
the strap is twisted a strong thread, in order to
keep them in a straight position, and a cross-peg is
inserted between the two pieces of bone. The lower
end of the central piece is fastened to the harpoon-

* Captain Wemgren informs us that the savages in the islands of the
Pacific are in the habit of fishing sometimes with hooks and at other
times with well-made nets, and that they occasionally shoot the fish
with arrows firom their canoes; when the fish rise/thej pierce them
with their javelins, then jump overboard and secure their prey. It
seems that the harpoons of this kind found in Scania may also have
been used by fishermen, while sitting in their boat, to shoot or
transfix the fish, especially as these harpoons have been discovered
at the bottom of bogs which have formerly been small lakes, where
the skeletons of gigantic pike are occasionally found, which may
have been proper objects of such fishing with harpoons.

-|- See also Note 2.

32 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

shaft, and the strap already mentioned is joined to
the long cord, at the end of which the bladder is
attached. When the harpoon has entered the animal
(it is principally used in catching blubber animals,
such as seals and whales), the terminal piece buries
itself completely in the wound, and then separates
itself from the shaft, when, owing to the mode in
which the strap is attached, it comes to lie across the
wound inside the hide of the animal, and operates,
of course, as a strong barb. The originals of these
figures are preserved in my late collection, and are
from the Kurile Islands. The Esquimaux in Green-
land also use harpoons of the same construction.*

There are undoubtedly as many harpoons of wood
as of bone, and when made of wood they are always
provided with a barb of stone. This was the case not
only with those made by the savages of Scandinavia,
but also with those of other savages. It is easy to un-
derstand that the part of the harpoon made of wood
must have decayed, leaving only the stone point ; it is
therefore worth enquiring if, among the stone points
found in our antiquities, there are any like those with
which the harpoons of existing savages are provided,
as in that case they have probably been handled in
the same manner. We have already seen that such
articles of flint as those from Mexico and the Kurile
Islands are also found in the south of Sweden. It

* It is worthy of remark, that iron harpoons, of nearly the same
construction and with movable points, are used on the west coast
of Norway for catching sharks {Squalus maximus). I saw some
during my first visit to Norway in 1816.

Ch. i.] FISH-SPE.iRS. 33

ought, however, to be observed that it is difficult to
draw a line of demarcation between the stone points
which have been harpoons^ and those which have
belonged to arrows^ because the same stone point
could have been adapted either to a harpoon or to an
arrow.

§ 4. Next in order to the harpoon I shall speak
of the leister (or fish-spear)^ and begin with the one
which I saw and sketched in 1836, in the Museum
at Bristol (PL IV. fig. 75), and which, according to
the label attached to it, is from the north-west coast
of North America. Beside it I have sketched one
half of a similar spear (fig. 76), also from North
America. We see by the sketch how this instrument
was constructed. On the top of a long pole are
fastened two tolerably long sharp-pointed bones, the
points bent a little outwards, and the inner side pro-
vided with teeth pointing backwards, to hold the fish
securely when struck. These bones are fastened to
the shaft in such a manner that each, independently
of the other, is in some way movable inwards and
outwards; their sides are therefore flat at the other
end, and the inner edge provided with one or more
teeth, pointing forwards in order to be tied fast, so
that they cannot be tom away by the fish ; and, in
order to prevent their being bent too much apart,
they are tied together by means of a strap at a short
distance from the handle.

A nearly similar leister, from the north part of
North America, north of Hudson's Bay (PI. IV. figs.
77, 78), is preserved in the ethnological department

34 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

of the Museum at Copenhagen. Its entire length is
38 inches, of which the wooden shaft measures 3 1^1
inches ; the bone points, in all 1 1 inches long, are, to
a length of 5 inches, fastened to the shaft, and con-
sequently protrude 6 inches beyond it. The shaft
is round, about ^ inch in diameter, somewhat com-
pressed in front of the lower end, the end itself
cut off diagonally with an incised broad round notch,
showing that a thick bow-string has been resting
thereon ; at the end three feathers are fastened length-
wise. It appears, however, that this implement was
made rather for shooting birds on the wing than
for spearing lish in the water.

But be this how it may, it is nevertheless very
remarkable that the half of an implement, evidently
similar to this last-mentioned one, has been found
in the peat-bog of Felsmosse, about three English
miles from Lund, in the province of Scania. I have
sketched this on Plate IV. fig. 79. This bone dart
is 7 inches long, round, and compressed ; the back
a little thicker, pointed towards the top end, round
and bent outwards a little ; the inner side some-
what compressed, with five broad incisions form-
ing teeth, bent backwards; the lower end broader
and also compressed, the inner edge provided with
oblique notches forming teeth, pointing forwards,
which thus prevent the dart from being drawn for-
ward. But what still more shows the perfect like-
ness between the North American and the Scanian
instrument is, that if we carefully examine the lat-
ter we shall find it scratched transversely in two

Ch. i.] FISIl-SPEARS. 36

places, the one at the place where the strings on the
American one attach the points to the shaft, and
the other a little way higher up, where the shaft ends
in the American implement, and where the points
are tied round; the Scanian dart is in other respects
entirely even and smooth.

Thus we see that the Scanian implement was con-
structed exactly in the same manner as the American,
and it is difficult for us to understand how implements
so complicated could have been constructed so com-
pletely alike by the Esquimaux of the present day,
living in the most northern part of North America,
and by the aborigines in the most southern part of
Scandinavia, between which two races, so veiy dissi-
milar in origin, and so Avidely separated as to locality,
we cannot suppose any relationship to have existed.
That implements so simple in construction as the
flint arrow should be alike in most countries, even in
Scania and Tierra del Fuego, can be explained by a
kind of instinct in man, as man^ everywhere, as long
as he stands at the very lowest point of civilisation ;
but the perfect similarity between implements so
complicated as those now in question, I look upon
as one of the great, still unsolved, enigmas of ethno-
logical science.

§ 5. The Spear. — This implement of the chase can
also be used for killing marine animals which have
been secured with the harpoon. The spear which I
have sketched (PI. III. fig. 54) is of flint, and is pre-
served in the British Museum, and labelled ^Flint-
headed Spear.^ It is from Point Barrow. There is

P 2

3G THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

also one from Kotzebue Sound. Both are fastened to
a long, somewhat slender and light wooden shaft, of
some kind of pine-wood, and measuring 5 to 5^ feet in
length, tapering towards both ends, especially towards
the lower end. The flint point is deeply inserted
in the top end of the shaft, and wound round with
thread.

Flint spear-points like these are not unfrequently
met with here. I possess a number of them of various
sizes, found in diflferent parts of Scania. Compare
PL III. figs. 61, 62, and others.

We also often find here spear-heads of a more
slender shape and greater length ; they are generally
thin ; compare PL IIL figs. 55, 57. Sometimes they
are extremely long, broad, and thin. In the Museum
of the Academy of Antiquities, in. Stockholm, there is
one measuring 14| inches in length, and 2f inches in
breadth, and very thin. The largest which I have
seen was 15 inches long by 2^ inches broad, and not
more than ^ths of an inch thick. The ordinary length
is 7 to 8 inches, by 1 ^ inch in breadth. That these
spears, as well as the former ones, must have been
provided with long wooden shafts, is more than proba-
ble. They must in that case have made most excellent
hunting implements for killing the larger mammalia,
such as the urus, bison, elk, stag, reindeer, wild boar,
and others, which, at the time when these spears
were in use, were abundant in the south of Scandi-
navia. They were, however, unsuitable as weapons of
war against an armed enemy, being too brittle. Even
amongst these there is no other difference between

Ch. i.] spears. 37

the blade and the shaft-handle, than that the edges
of the latter are more blunt. Such a bone spear is
preserved in the Museum at Bristol (PL III. fig. 56),
and is labelled : ' Head of an Esquimaiue Spear^ East
Coast of Greenland, Lat. 74'' 32' N.'

We have also found here in Sweden some spears
of bone (PL III. fig. 58 ; PL IV. fig. 68) made of
thigh-bones, so that the shaft was inserted in the
lance-head, not the head in the shaft. They were,
moreover, secured by a wooden peg passing through
both the shaft and the handle. These bone spears
are no doubt synchronous with the flint spears, having
been found near HögsmöUa, and in other places in
Scania, in a deep peat-bog, in which also stone im-
plements were discovered.

In the British Museum a spear is preserved from
the interior of Chili \ it is of iron, but of the same
shape as the flint spear which I have sketched on
PL III. fig. 44. The shaft is of bamboo, and about
four fathoms in length.

There is no doubt that the similar flint spears
found in Sweden were also mounted on long wooden
shafts, and would have been excellent implements
for killing the larger mammalia. Spears of this
form occur of various sizes, from 3 to 8 inches in
length (compare PL III. fig. 62). One variety
has the haft shorter and broader (see PL III. fig.
CI), and resembles PL III. fig. 54. Others have no
shaft, but they have been attached to the handle
by means of a notch, at the sides near the lower
end, as in PL VI. fig. 120, found in the earth in

38 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

Ohio, north of Cincinnati. PL VI. fig. 121 is a
spear, the point of attachment of which has been
broken off ; the sides near the bi'oken end have after-
wards been provided with notches, in order to allow
of its being tied to the shaft. It was found in the
south of Scania.

The spear which is sketched on PL III. fig. 59 is
a peculiarly shaped one. None similar to it has
been found as yet, either in the south of Sweden
or in Denmark ; but it is met with in the northern
and central parts of this country. This specimen is
from Kolmärden, and in the Museum of the Academy
of Antiquities, in Stockholm. A similar one is pre-
served from Norrland, measuring 7| inches in length,
and 1| inch in breadth. This form of spear is never
of flint, but of a hard slatestone.*

§ 6. Knives: —

1. The Hunting-knife. — This ranks next to the
spear; and, indeed, a spear is, properly speaking,
nothing but such a knife fastened to a long shaft. It
is, therefore, often impossible to judge from the blade
whether it has been a spear or a knife.

I will begin by mentioning a stone knife from New
Zealand, preserved in the British Museum, in London
(PL III. fig. 65). The blade, consisting of a kind

• It is probably not so ancient as the flint spears. Those parts
of the country in which it is found with us were, according to some
opinions, to which I shall refer by and by, not yet inhabited when
gtone implements were first used in the south of Sweden and Den-
mark. One similar, of bronze, and of about tlie same length, 10-11
inches, was found in England, and copied in tlie Primeval Antiqui-
ties of Denmark^ page 30.

Ch. i.] hunting-knives. 39

of jafiper-like stone, is, exclusive of the handle, 3^
inches long. If inch broad, lancet-shaped, pointed,
and with chipped edges. It is fastened by means
of some ^black gum, or cement, to a wooden handle,
which has been tightly wound round with some
strongly twined thread,* at the lower part of the
blade. The handle is about 5 inches long, roundly
compressed, a little widened at the back, split at the
end, and provided with a smaU round hole, in which
a strong cord is insei*ted, forming a loop 14 inches
long, probably for carrying the knife.

Similar knife-blades made of flint are often found
in Northern Europe. It is clear that in those cases
where the handles were made of wood, these latter
have decayed, so that only the blade remains. To
these belong, without doubt, PI. V. fig. 80, PI. III.
fig. 60, and perhaps also PI. V. fig. 83. This last-
mentioned flint blade has evidently had a broad
handle.

Other flint knives^ which are not common with
us, have the handles also of stone (PI. III. figs. 63,
64, 66, 67 ; also PI. V. figs. 81, 22). These handles
are frequently nearly of the same shape as the
wooden handle which is sketched here, namely,
roundly compressed, widened at the back, and even a
little indented, as, for instance, PI. III. fig. 67.

It is scarcely to be doubted that the modem New
Zealand, and the ancient Scandinavian, stone knife,
which in all essentials are perfectly alike, have been
used for the same purpose. Of these ancient Scandi-

* Probably of Phormivm tenax.

40 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

navian stone knives^ with handles widened towards
the back, there are four varieties: —

1. Those with the handle roundly compressed,
widened towards the back, but not very elaborately
finished (PL V. fig. 82).

2. Those with a similar handle, but with the
sides, which form a continuation of the edge, carved
(fig. 81).

8. Those with one of the broad sides carved along
the middle, the other flat (PI. III. fig. 67).

4. Those in which both the long sides, as well as
the edges, are carved (fig. 66). These latter espe-
cially are fi:equently worked with great skill.

Besides these knives with handles widened towards
the backy there is a form of knife frequently met with
here, with square handles of stone of uniform breadth,
and cut off straight at the back. It is shown amongst
those already sketched (PI. III. figs. 63, 64). These
also are frequently more or less tastefully carved along
the edges ; we have two varieties of them : —

1. With the blade longer than the handle, lancet-
shaped, and pointed (fig. 64).

2. With the blade shorter than the handle, less
pointed, and more oval (fig. 63). In the former, the
handle forms an acute angle with the edge, and in the
latter, with the flat side of the blade.*

2. Cutting-knife. — Under this name I propose to
denote a variety of flint knife which is more rarely
found amongst our antiquities. It has a sharp edge
along one side, and a broad chipped curved back

• See Note 2.

Ch. i.] knives. 41

along the other (PL V. figs. 84, 85); it resembles,
consequently, very much what is called a ' Dutchman's
knife,' or kitchen-knife, and is generally from 5 to 6
inches long, by 1| to If inch broad. The edge is
always chipped, never ground or notched, except the
back, which is notched across. That it has been pro-
vided with a wooden handle cannot be doubted. The
edge is always sharpened on the right side, which
shows that it has been made for cutting away from^
not towards, the person using it (fig. 85), provided
with a broad hewn notch to bind it to the handle ;
both the specimens figured were found in Scania.

3. Semilunar Knife. — This shape I have not hither-
to found amongst the implements belonging to any
other tribes than those living in the Polar regions
of North America; but amongst the Esquimaux it
appears to be common. There is one preserved in
the Museum at Bristol (PI. V. fig. 86), which is
entered in the Catalogue as ^ Knife obtained from
the Esquimaux Indians^ East Coast of Greenland^
Lat 74** 40' iV.' It is made of iron, and has both
ends broken off; but both Sir John Ross, and Dr.
Richardson, who happened to be in Bristol at the
time of my visit there in 1836, and who, as is well
known, have long resided amongst the Esquimaux in
North America, agreed with me that the Esquimaux
knife in question is of an unusual shape, depending
on that of the piece of iron from which it was made.
Dr. Richardson assured me that he had often seen
knives of stone amongst the Esquimaux of North
America, of the same shape as those semilunar knives

42 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

of which I shall speak farther on ; and Sir John Ross
told me that he had seen similar ones of bone amongst
the Esquimaux in Boothia.

The handle is of wood, frequently like the one
sketched here, but sometimes of a somewhat different
shape. This one is of some kind of fir-wood, badly
. cut, and wound round with a strap of seal-skin, in
order to hold fast the blade in the slit of the handle
in which it has been inserted. The Esquimaux call
these knives olomik^ or ulomik^ which, I believe, is the
plural of olo or ulo.

Such flint forms are frequently found here in
Sweden ; they occur in a great variety of shape and
size (see PI. V. figs. 87, 91). Some are shorter,
broader, with one side bent, the other straight (fig.
88) ; length from 4 to 4J^ inches, breadth 1| to 2
inches. The edges of these are merely roughly
sharpened. Others are narrower and longer, from 6
to 74 inches long. Amongst these the most bent
side is almost always sharpened ; the other side
is occasionally a little bent inwards (fig. 87), some-
times straight or bent outwards a little, and toothed
(fig. 91). This implement seems, in that case, to
have been used both as a knife and as a saw.
Lastly, we find occasionally specimens of the latter
shape, roughly toothed on both edges (fig. 90).
These appear to have been used as saws. There is
reason to believe that in some specimens the handle
has enclosed one edge, the edge having been in-
serted in a groove running lengthwise. It is pro-
bable that the curved knife formed as a saw (PI. V.

Ch. i.] arrows. 43

fig. 91) has had such a handle. These so-called semi-
lunar knives occasionally, as in fig. 89, have one end
chipped up, so that it may fit into a handle.

§ 7. AiTOWs. — Everybody knows how the arrow is
shot from a bow, provided with a string. For this
purpose it has a round, slender, wooden shaft, more
or less long. Arrows, headed with stone, are still
used by many savages. We may divide arrow-heads
into such as have, and such as have not, a tang or
projection for insertion into the shaft. Of the former
we have two forms, both amongst the ancient ones, and
also amongst those still used; the long and the short.
An arrow of this description (PI. V. fig. 102) is pre-
served in the British Museum. The shaft is slender,
light, 2 feet 8 inches long, and at the lower end, as
usual, provided with feathers. Of the latter form,
PI. V. fig. 107 represents one from Scania; fig. 106
another firom Tierra del Fuego. Those provided with
shafts, which I have had, were from California (PI. V.
figs. 104, 105). The shafts are about 2 feet long,
and the heads tied on by means of strings of gut,
which have dried on round the shaft.

Long stone arrow-heads with a shaft- tongue (pin)
are not unfrequently found in the ground in Sweden.
These have been chipped out of flint-flakes, more
or less thin; sometimes they consist only of flint-
splinters with a chipped tongue (PI. II. fig. 33); some-
times they are chipped along the edges (fig. 39) ;
sometimes toothed (PI. V. fig. 92), when they ap-
proach more nearly the triangular form. Lastly, we
find those which are triangular, with the sides and

* I

44 THE STONE AGE. [Cm I.

angles equal, and with chipped edges, occasionally
more or less distinctly toothed (PL II. fig. 40). Such
a flint arrow-head resembles a small bayonet.

There is a kind of arrow-head made of an oblong,
three-cornered piece of bone, pointed at both ends ;
and on both sides provided with a narrow groove,
running lengthwise (PL XIIT. fig. 241). As far as
I know, arrow-heads of this kind have hitherto been
found only in the island of Öland, and it is un-
certain whether they belong to the Stone Age.

The short arrow-head, with a pin or tang, is more
slender and flat. To this form belong PL III. figs.
45, 47, and others. The larger ones of this form
cannot be distinguished from harpoons ; fig. 47 is of
quartz; fig. 45 of flint; fig. 103, PL V., is of obsi-
dian, from Tierra del Fuego, and was used, I am
informed, as a knife.

Arrow-points without a Tang. — These are always
tolerably thin and broad, both side edges chipped,
and more or less excavated at the base (PL V. figs.
94-98, 113, 114); sometimes they are provided on
both the flat sides with a notch, in order to be tied to
the shaft (PL V. fig. 104). This form comes near
the harpoon-head (PL X. fig. 203), and can be dis-
tinguished from it only by the size. They are often
without any side grooves, in which case they are
fastened in a slit at the end of the shaft (PL V. figs.
94-98). I saw, in London, in 1836, at Mr. Stokes's,
arrows from California, headed with a triangular piece
of metal of exactly the same shape as the flint arrow-
head found in Scania (PL V. fig. 113); and in the

Ch. i.] spears and JAVELLNS. 4Ö

collection of the late King Christian VIII. were
similar ones of flint from North America,*

§ 8. Next in order to spears and arrows stands a
peculiar group of stone implements, all known from
their being two-edged, more or less sharp-pointed,
broadest at the lower end, which is chipped thinner
in order to allow of its being inserted in a slit at the
end of a wooden shaft. To this class belongs the
stone spear (PL VI. fig. 119). It is round, com-
pressed, with sharpened side edges, pointed in front,
at the back thin and sharpened, so that it can be
inserted in a shaft. Length up to 10 or 12 inches;
breadth from 1 inch 3'^ to 1 inch h". We often
find some shorter, broader, and thinner; the lower
end sometimes straight, sometimes cut out round,
but always sharpened, and the front part always
pointed (PI. VI. fig. 118), Length 7^ inches, breadth
2 inches ; or length 6 inches, breadth 1-5 inches ;
or length 7 inches, breadth If inch. These form the
transition to harpoons and arrows.

§ 9. Javelins. — This hunting implement we find still
in use amongst the inhabitants of the Kurile Islands

and in Greenland. The one sketched here (PI. VI.
fig. 122) is from the former place. They are of bone
or wood, 6 to 10 inches long, round, but along one
side usually provided with an edge, and that edge
notched so as to form two or three points or barbs
directed backwards, the top sometimes armed with

• In the collection made by Sir George Simpson in the Hudson
Bay territory, are similar arrows, some tipped with stone, others
with metal.

46 THE STONE AGE. [Cfl. I.

a small sharp stone-flake, but sometimes merely
sharpened; the lower end pointed so as to be in-
serted in a wooden shaft about 5 feet long. This
implement is now, in Greenland, made of iron, and
provided with one or two barbs (PL VI. fig. 123)
(see also Craiitz, * History of Greenland,' PL V. figs.
(?, 7); formerly it was made of bone (as we may
see by those found in ancient Esquimaux graves).
H. Egede says of them, in ' Gronland's Perlustration,'
page 56 : — ' On the water they (the Greenlanders) do
not shoot birds by means of a bow and arrows, as on
land, but kill them with the javelin, which, at the
point, is provided with a sharp bone or iron.' This
proves that even as late as the time of Egede, the
javelin was in Greenland sometimes made of bone.

We find now and then in our peat-mosses im-
plements (PL VI. figs. 124, 125, 126) which have
evidently been used in the same manner as the
javelin from the Kurile Islands, above described.
These implements are of bone, 6 to 10 inches long,
2^ to 3 or 4 lines broad, occasionally round, but
generally rather compressed, tapering to a point
towards both ends, and either provided along both
sides with a deeply indented groove (figs. 125, 126),
into which thin sharp flakes of flint are inserted, and
fastened by means of black putty resembling pitch,*

* This bums with a strong flame, and is a resin exactly like
that which forms the chief ingredient in the ^ pigmy -bread ^^ or
* incense-loaves y which are here found in the earth or in bogs, and
which Huhnefeld quite seriously considered to be petrified Scanian
bread. See /«/«, 1836, page 718.

Cu. L] JAVELINS. 47

or the groove with the flint-flakes is found only along
one side (fig. 124).* The front end is pointed, and
behind, the point is occasionally widened, in shape
like a spear-point, so that the whole bone represents
a spear in miniature, with its long shaft ; the groove
holding the flint-splinters does not reach quite to the
point. Such is the implement in its original form, but,
by degrees, as it wears out and is again sharpened to
a point, the spear-shaped expansion disappears and
the point is worn down to the grooves. The hinder
end is likewise sharp-pointed, and has evidently been
inserted in a wooden shaft. Generally this end is
to a certain distance less smooth than the remainder
of the bone, and sometimes the resin, by means of
which it has been cemented in the shaft, remains up
to a little more than 1 inch (fig. 12G). This imple-
ment is principally found in bogs in the south of
Scania, also in the province of Bohusland on Tjörn
(west coast of Sweden) ; it is said to have been also
found in the island of Oland. In the Museum of the
Academy of Antiquities, in Stockholm, there is a
specimen, the longest which I have seen (10 inches
in length), found during the digging of the Gotha
Canal, between Påfvelstorp and Tåtorp, in peat-
earth, under a bed of clay, and 8 feet under ground.
But where there is peat-earth there must have
been water; consequently, everything that is found
on, and especially under, peat-earth, has sunk to
the bottom in some water. It is probable, therefore,

* The point is said to have been occasionally armed with a flint-
»plinter, as in the Kurile Islands.

48 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. 1.

that the implements in question, while being used on
the water, have dropped therein and gone to the
bottom. In order to foim a correct idea of the
manner in which these implements were used by the
Scandinavian aborigines, we ought to enquire how
they are employed amongst the nations where they
are still in use.

The Greenlander uses this weapon only on the
water, in the pursuit of aquatic birds. It is provided
with a shaft five feet in length, ending at the back
with some ornament, generally a reindeer foot or
something of that kind, and is thrown by hand at
birds while they are resting on the water. It strikes
usually at the distance of from fifty to sixty paces,
and Egede relates that the Greenlander can hit his
prey at a tolerably long distance, as surely as a
good shot could do it with a fowling-piece. From
his early childhood the Greenlander begins to prac-
tise throwing the bird-javelin. It is thrown by
means of a thromng-stick or boards with such force
that it flies whizzing through the air, and with such
wonderful skill that it generally pierces the head of
the duck.

There is scarcely any doubt that the darts here
sketched have been the same kind of hunting im-
plements, and that they have been employed in
the same way. That they have been, and were hi-
tended to be, thrown by hand, we can easily see, be-
cause they could have been used only on the water ;
for if thrown on land they must infallibly have
been broken to pieces and destroyed. They are,
therefore, found only in peat-bogs, which in former

Ch. i.] slings. 49

times were open waters, sometimes of considerable
extent. They occur not unfrequently in the south
of vSweden. Our museums contain a great number
of them ; but in Denmark they are rare.

After the javelm^ we shall here speak of another
kind of weapon, also intended to be thrown, namely,
the sling-stone.

That slings and sling-stones are used both as wea-
pons of war and implements of the chase amongst
many savage nations now living, we know from
accounts received from travellers, and by the slings
and slmg-stones brought home by them, and preserved
in several of the European ethnographical museums.
We see, from accounts of the ancients relating to
their battles, that, even as late as the Iron Age, the
inhabitants of Scandinavia, as well as the Greeks, in
their wars with the savage hordes of Asia, used
the sling and sling-stone amongst their weapons.
The practice of throwing with the sling dates, pro-
bably, amongst ourselves, as far back as the time of
the pure Stone Age.

From the remotest times two kinds of slings have
been in use : wooden slings * and ribbon-slings. Since
this was written, I have seen Ed. Vischer's ' Antike
Schleudergeschosse.' Basil, 1866. The author does
not seem aware that any other than ribbon-slings
have been found; but besides having myself, as a

* It appears that it waa with such a sling that David flung the
stone at Goliath's forehead, because Goliath said to him, 'Am I a dog,
that thou comest to me with staves ? ' i.e. the shepherd's staff and
sling-handle. 1 Sam. xvii. 43.

50 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

boy, used the wooden sling, and frequently seen it
used by other boys, I can refer to one described in
Lepsius's work. The wooden sling consists of a
stick, in the upper part or near the end of which is a
slit or hole^ in which the stone is put ; such a sling
with a hole is sketched in Lepsius's great work on
Egypt, where a man is represented, at whose feet lies
a heap of small stones, and who holds in his hand a
wooden sling of this description, which he appears
to be using very actively in the fight.

The other kind, the ribbon-sling^ consists of a string
or strap, of the breadth of about one to two inches,
and is about three feet long. One end is twisted
round the forefinger of the right hand, the other
held between that finger and the thumb ; the sling-
stone is placed in the loop formed by the ribbon,
and the slino^ then swunof round the head until the
stone has obtained a sufficiently swift motion, when
one end of the ribbon is let go, and the stone flies
forward with immense speed through the air. Those
who have long practised the use of this weapon are
able to take a good aim with it. We see by this that
the sling-stones must be smooth, and, in preference,
oval ; but they need not be so carefully fashioned as
was formerly thought necessary. All round articles
of antiquity were, until lately, considered to be sling-
stones, as, for instance, those which are seen on
PI. I. figs. 1, 9, 12, 14, and others, PL XL fig. 216,
and almost all plummet-stones as well. But a little
reflection will convince us of the absurdity of sup-
posing that a man would give himself all this trouble

Ch. i.] the ribbon-sling. 61

to fasliion sling-stones, which were to be thrown
away the next moment, when he could find many
natural pebbles quite as suitable. The stones called
by the Danish antiquaries flinte-hnuder have also been
regarded as sling-stones; * but they are too irregular
and too sharp-cornered, so that they would soon wear
out the sling, even if it were made of leather. I pre-
sume that these sharp-cornered stone balls were the
first hand-missile weapons of the earliest and rudest
savages, and used by them to throw at wild animals
or enemies. I have since had many proofs that the
stone (PI. V. fig. 115) which was sketched in the first
edition of this work, twenty-eight years ago, actually
was a sling-stone as I then conjectured. During
my visit to England and France, I saw, in the British
Museum, and in the Louvre, many such sling-stones,
both from New Caledonia and from New Zealand,
made of a greyish-white, sometimes bluish, very
heavy kind of stone, which I took to be a kind of
spar. On PI. V. two such (figs. 116, 117) are sketched
by the side of the Swedish one. The one from New
Caledonia, which I measured, was 2 inches long and
1 inch in diameter ; another from New Zealand was
1§ inch long, and also 1 inch in diameter. They are
all somewhat smaller than those found here, of which
three are preserved in the Museum at Lund and
two at Stockholm, being of a heavier kind of stone.
Not only the sling-stones^ but also the slings^ are
preserved in the said museums. They are made
of bast, artistically plaited into long strong ribbons,

• See Prehistoric Times, PL I. fig. 12, page 60.

B 2

53 THE STONE AGE. [CA. I.

and widened in the middle so as to form a kind
of cushion woven of bast threads, on which the
stone rests when it is to be thrown. M. De Lonsr-
perier, conservator of the Museum at the Louvre, in-
formed me that one occasionally sees ribbon-slings
drawn on Greek monuments and Etruscan vases.*
There are also at the above-named museums, sling-
stones of lead with Greek inscriptions; they are gene-
rally a little smaller than those of stone, on account of
their greater weight; the usual length is If inch,
only one as much as If inch in length, but they are
all nearly of the same shape as the stones, though
not round like them, but somewhat compressed. The
Romans called them acorns (glandes)^ from their
shape, and cast them of lead {glandes liventis plumbi^
Virg. ' iEneid,' vii. 687). Compare ' iEneid,' ix. 586-
589, where the poet describes how the lead acorn is
slung and kills. There is no doubt that such slings,
probably made of a leathern strap cut out of the hide
of some animal, were used by the northern savages
both in war and in hunting ; and this weapon, in their
expert hands, was a never-failing one. The reason
why such carefully prepared sling-stones are so very
rarely found, appears to be that the savage, like
David when he slew Goliath, chose smooth stones out
of the brook, which he could pick up on the banks of
the rivers and lakes beside which he dwelt, and carry
with him on his hunting excursions. These smooth
and round stones, fashioned by Nature's hand, were

* It is probably this kind of sling to which Homer alludes in the
Iliad, xiii. 599-600.

Ch. I.] CARPENTER'S OR MECIiANIC'S TOOLS. 53

probably used by warriors even at a coinparatively
late period.

How far the dexterity in throwing stones by the
hand, or by a sling, can be carried, we see by what
Strabo (lib. v. c. 17-18) relates about the inhabi-
tants of the Balearic Islands, which, islands have
derived their name from the Greek word ^aXXsiv, to
throw. He says, * with slings they throw large stones
better than other people. They attain this dexterity
by constant practice from their youth up, for the
mothers fix a loaf of bread on the top of a high pole,
and the boys must starve until they have hit and
knocked down the bread/ •

nvisiON III. — carpenter's or mechanic's tools,

WITH THEIR EDGES LYING ACROSS ONE END.

The edge-tools, of which we have spoken hitherto,
are all provided with a point, and they all have
chipped, but never ground, edges along one or both
sides. We come now to tools which are distinguished
by the end opposite to the shaft being broad, rough-
sharpened, and frequently having a ground edge. To
this series belong the chisel, the axe, and others. We
divide them into two classes, those with and without
a hole for the handle.

Class I. — Implements without a Hole for the Handle.

§ 1. Chisels. — These well-known implements occur
in the ancient graves in Scandinavia, sometimes of

* See Appendix, Note 3.

64 THE STONE AGE, [Ch. L

stone^ sometimes of bone^ but exactly alike in form, as
amongst the inhabitants of Otaheite and New Zealand.
We divide the chisels into narrow and broad chisels,
and we subdivide these again into square chisels and
hollow chisels (or gouges). We shall speak of each
separately.

1. The narrow square Chisel A chisel of nephrite

(a green serpentine stone), from New Zealand, is
preserved in the British Museum. It was used by
the natives as a chisel, as lately as within the last
fifty years. In order to show the manner in which
this kind of stone implement is handled, and how it
has been used, I have given two sketches of it
(PI. VI. figs. 12f), 130). The stone chisel itself is
about 44 inches long, square, and somewhat rounded,
especially on the two sides ; the edge is straight, and
sharpened from both sides. The handle, which is of
wood, has on one side a deep notch, against which
the heel of the chisel rests, and on the other side is a
small indentation for a string, by which the chisel is
tied to the handle. This string is of a coarsely
twined thread of the Phormium tenax. It is easy to
see by the crushed end of the handle that this imple-
ment has been used exactly in the same way as our
own modern iron chisels^ namely, it has been driven
into the wood by means of a wooden mallet, in order
to produce therein square holes or indentations.

Stone chisels^ exactly similar to the New Zealand
one, are frequently found here in the groimd. They
are mostly of flint, but occasionally of other kinds of
stone. I have seen one made of quartz, and there is one

Ch.L] stone chisels. 55

of diorite preserved in my collection. The majority,
and the most beautiful ones are, however, as before
mentioned, of flint. These occur of various dimen-
sions, from 4 and 5 to 10 inches in length, and from
^ to 1^ inch in breadth (PL VI. fig. 127 ). Sometimes
they are entirely square with flat sides; sometimes
more cylindrical, with the sides a little convex, and
with rounded edges. Like all flint instruments with
ground edges, they have been rough-hewn before
being ground. We find also some which are only
rough-hewn and which there has been no time to
grind : these have never been used. The upper part,
which has been covered by the wooden handle, is
generally rough ; the lower, uncovered part is usually
more even and smoothly ground ; the edge straight
and equally ground from both sides. We see by
the foregoing how this implement has been handled
and used (PI. VI. figs. 129, 130).

Similar implements made of bone are also found in
our ancient funeral vaults. The one represented iii
PI. VI. fig. 128, was found in Denmark, and is pre-
served in the Museum of Antiquities in Copenhagen.
PL VI. fig. 131 represents another similar one, but
round, found in Scania, and preserved in the Museum
of Antiquities in Stockholm. That these have been
handled in the same manner as the stone chisels and
used in the same way, namely, driven into soft wood
by blows from a mallet, will be evident when we exa-
mine the bone chisel from Otaheite, of which we shall
speak presently.

2. The narrow hollow Chisel^ or Govge. — This is

ÖO THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

distinguished from the square chisel merely by its
having one side of the lower end scooped out, the
other roimded, so that the edge is curvilinear. It is
of about the same size as the square chisel, but gene-
rally somewhat rounded, and the edges quite so. As
far as I am aware, all those hitherto found in Sweden
were made of flint (PI. VI. fig. 134). There can be
no doubt that they were handled and worked by
means of blows from a mallet, in the same manner
as the former.

I have certainly not yet met with this implement
amongst those which have belonged to any tribe
now extant in the islands of the Pacific ; but it
is evident that it must occur there also, especially
as we have several similar implements made of bone
from those regions. In the British Museum is a
narrow gouge of bone from Otaheite (PI. VI. figs.
132, 133). It is provided with a wooden handle,
twisted round with a cord. But what deserves the
greatest attention is, that this wooden handle also
shows unmistakable marks of blows from some mal-
let. Thus the bone^ as well as the stone chisels^ have
been used for working in wood.

3. Chisels with Handles In the British Museum is

preserved a stone chisel^ with a handle also of stone,
from Nootka, which is sketched on PL VI. fig. 135.
This implement is not of flint, but of a species of
dioritic stone. The handle there evidently supplies
the place of a wooden handle, while blows from a
wooden mallet are applied to the widened knob. I
have no doubt that this implement has been used in

Ch.L] chisels. 67

the same manner as the stone chisel with a wooden
handle from New Zealand.

An implement which, both as to general shape and
material, resembles the one from Nootka, occurs also
amongst our articles of antiquity here in the North
(PL VI. fig. 136). It has repeatedly been found in
Denmark, and several specimens of it are preserved in
the Museum of Antiquities in Copenhagen. (Compare
Mr. Thomsen's treatise, * Nordiske Oldsager af Steen,*
inserted in * Nordisk Tidskr. för Oldkyndighet,' 1 vol.,
page 27 (PL III. fig. 17)). Owing to this implement
being made of a talcose or dioritic species of stone,
which very easily decays, the surface has become soft
and the edge blunt, and it was supposed to be unfit for
being used as an instrument for working in wood ; it
was therefore inferred * that it was used at sacrificial
festivab for flaying the animals or victims about to be
immolated, the hide or skin having previously been
ripped open by means of some more cutting instrument.
But having seen that even chisels of hone have been
used as cutting instruments, there is no further room
for this supposition. The implement in question has
probably been used in the same way as the similar
one from Nootka, and as the stone chisels previously
mentioned.

Next to the narrow chisels there occurs a sort of
tool which difiers from it merely in size. I shall call
these the hroad chisels^ and divide them in the same
way as the narrow chisels, namely, into broad chisels
with straight and with curved edge. To the former
belong :

68 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. L

A. The broad square Chisel {PI. VI. figs. 137, 138).
It is square, thick (never thin), and its section
forms a square, cut short off. The edge is ground
convexly from both sides, but generally more from
one than the other.

Like all flint implements, these chisels have been
rough-hewn before being ground. We find, therefore,
specimens which have been only rough-hewn, others
which have been ground on the two broad sides, and
others again which have been ground on all sides.

a. With those sides straight which lie at right
angles with the edge (fig. 137), and 6, with the same
sides bent inwards (fig. 138). The former are the
most numerous and the largest. Through interme-
diate forms they merge into the narrow chisel ; and I
have two in my possession which, from equally valid
reasons, can be classed either amongst broad chisels
or amongst narrow chisels. The last-mentioned form
(fig. 138) is not actually rare^ but is less frequently met
with than the former, and is generally of smaller size.

There can be no doubt that this implement was
provided with a wooden handle, attached to it in
the same manner as in the New Zealand stone chisel
(PL VI. figs. 129, 130) ; and that it was driven
into the wood by blows from a mallet. Tiie upper
part is consequently square and thick, to prevent its
penetrating into the handle while being used.

B. The broad Gouge (PI. VI. figs. 139, 140).—
Amongst the stone implements brought home to the
museums in Europe from existing savage nations, I
have certainly not met with this form of chisel ; but

Oh.L] the broad gouge. Ö9

some flint implements exactly similar are preserved
in the collection* lately belonging to King Christian
at Copenhagen, which were sent here from North
America, where, together with several other stone
implements, all exactly like our Scanian ones^ they
have been discovered in ancient burial-mounds, and
are said to have belonged to a tribe expelled 80 or
100 years ago. Meanwhile, it is easy to see how this
tool has been used. It is rounded, more or less
smooth, and often chopped off short at the upper
end. It has therefore evidently been made to grasp
with the left hand, and to be driven by blows from
a mallet, held in the right hand, into the wood which
it was intended to scoop out. The marks left by the
mallet are almost always seen on the upper end.
But this implement is sometimes short, sometimes
more or less pointed ; in these cases it seems to have
been provided with a wooden handle, on which the
blows from the mallet have been inflicted.

To this division belongs, no doubt, the imple-
ment which has been sketched on PI. VII. fig. 146.
It is of an oblong conical shape, pointed at the top,
convex at the bottom, and with a flat-ground surface
on one side, sloping towards the lower end, by which
a somewhat rounded edge is formed. This kind of
implement, which is never made of flint, but gene-
rally of basalt, is frequently found in Scania and
West Gothland, especially in and near former or still
existing water. While digging the West Gotha canal,
a great number of them were found in Billströmen.
Probably, the implement now in question has been

60 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. L

helved as a chisel, and been used for scooping out
trunks of trees for canoes, or some similar purpose.
, A stone implement of exactly the same description
is in the British Museum, amongst the ethnogra-
phical collections from the north-west coast of
North America. It is not on record in what manner
it was helved, nor for what purpose it was used ; but
it would perhaps not be impossible to obtain infor-
mation on this subject.

§ 2. Hatchets or Axes. — Next in order to chisels
stand axes. It is, indeed, often difficult to distinguish
between them; in both the cutting part is broad,
square, and provided with an edge. But in the chisels
the handle has the same direction as the blade, being
in fact merely a prolongation thereof; in the axe, on
the contrary, the haft forms either a right or an acute
angle with the blade. The upper part in the chisel
is square ; in the axe it is compressed.

We divide the axes, according to the direction of
the edge in reference to the haft, into straight axes
and cross-axes. In the former the edge lies parallel
with the haft ; in the latter its direction is across the
handle.

1. The Cross-axe. — Next to the broad chisels j of
which we have already spoken, stands the cross-axe^
or adze^ which varies greatly in substance, shape, and
size. Of all tools, indeed, the cross-axe oflfers the
greatest variety of forms, whether we examine the
modern ones preserved in ethnological museums or
the ancient ones which are found with us in the earth.

a. The Cross-axe^ with a flat chipped Edge only on

Ch. L] CROSS-AXES. 61

one Side (PL VII. fig. 147). — This axe is from Cali-
fornia, where it is used by the natives, we do not
know exactly for what purpose. It is made of a hard
and thick shell ; its form is oblong with two narrow
sides, the broad front side somewhat convex, the other
flat, and on the lower part of the latter is a flat surface,
which forms a very open obtuse angle with the broad
side of the back part, and an edge with the iconi
convex broad side — the edge is therefore a little
curvilinear.

We see from this how these cross-axes are generally
handled, another illustration of which is PI. VII. fig.
150. I have a stone axe, in shape exactly like fig. 147,
from the parish of Willand, in Scania, where it was
found in the ground with other antiquities of stone
(Ph VII. fig. 148). It consists of black basaltic
stone. Its length about 6 inches, greatest breadth 2
inches, and thickness ^ inch. It has no doubt been
helved like the former, and used in the same manner.

A cross'dxe of clay-slate^ belonging to the same
class (PL VII. fig. 149), is distinguished by having
both its broad sides flat. That it is short is probably
owing to its having lost more or less of its original
length by frequent grinding. It was found near Böke,
in Scania. One often finds, in ethnological collections
from North America, small axes of the same shape
as this.

It is very remarkable that the savage in Sweden,
thousands of years ago, and the savage in America in
the last century, used both hard and soft substances
for edge-tools, such as hard and soft stone, and bone.

62 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. 1.

and that he made them of the same shape in both
places.

To this same group of cross-axes belongs also the
one sketched in PI. VIT. fig. 150, being one-sixth of
the actual size. The original is in the British
Museum; it is from Nootka. The blade is of black
basaltic stone. How it is fastened to the shaft and
how the axe is used is easily seen by the sketch.

i. Cross-cute with edge ground on both sides^ but
more on one than the other. — I possess an axe-
blade of stone from Pitcaim's Island, in the Pacific
(PI. VI. fig. 142), which, both with respect to the
species of stone, the size, and shape, resembles some
of those which are found in our ancient tombs, on
the coast between Ahus and Cimbrishamn (PI. VI.
fig. 143). .It seems to me that there can be no doubt
that they have both been cross-axes.

Hereto belongs also PL VI. fig. 145. Axes of this
form are alwaj's of trap, and are also found in the
above-mentioned coast district in Scania. They are
small, compressed on both the broad sides, slightly
rounded, without narrow sides, tapering upwards,
sometimes i)ointed, the edge sharpened on both sides.
They are not unfrequently found with handles in
ethnographical collections.

A nearly similar form is that sketched on PI. VII.
fig. 161; but the broad sides are flat and the narrow
sides rough-hewn. It is found in sepulchral barrows
and in peat-bogs, especially in the south and west of
Scania. Next to this comes the form of an axe re-
presented in PI. VI. fig. 141, which has provisionally

Ch. L] axes. 63

been called ice- chisel. (See the paragraph about it
among undetermined antiquities.)

2. Straight Axes. — That is to say, those of which
the haft has the same direction as the edge. The
blade is wedged into the handle. They are, therefore,
known by their being thinned off towards the top,
and ha\dng no plane or square surface. The edge,
which is straight, and equally, or nearly equally,
sharpened from both sides, wears out, for very obvious
reasons, more in front than at the back, which causes
it, if looked at sideways, to appear crooked. (Com-
pare PL VJ I. figs. 159, 160.)

In the British Museum there is an axe from
Tierra del Fuego, which I have sketched here
(PL VII. fig. 155), one-sixth of the actual size,
in order to show how such axe-blades were fast-
ened to the handle.* The handle of this axe is
club-like, of a hard ponderous wood, badly shaped,
evidently by means of a cross-axe of stone, which has
had a somewhat curved edge, because the marks
left by it are a little concave. The blade of iron
appears to have been flattened and fashioned between
stones, is inserted deeply in the shaft, and is a little
broadened towards the cutting end. The edge is
blunt, with sides somewhat convex.

Axes of copper, of precisely a similar form, are
occasionally found here in the earth in Scania. (See
PL VII. figs. 164, 156.) Like the former, they have
two broad and two narrow sides, all flat, and the
former widened towards the edge; towards the top

* See Note 4.

64 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

they are thinner, evidently in order to be inserted in
a wooden handle like the former. There cannot,
therefore, be any doubt about the manner in which
this axe has been helved, and that it has been used
in the same way as our wood-cutter's and carpenter's
axes are still.*

We also find here in Sweden axes made of Jlint^
precisely like the aforesaid metal axes. I have
sketched such an one on PL VII. fig. 153. This form
of flint axe is not rare here. Its breadth is three or
four times its thickness. There is no doubt that it
has been helved in the same way as the former,
namely, in such a manner that the upper thinner end,
which was made thinner on purpose, has been inserted
in the side of a thick wooden shaft ; it is also easy to
see how it has been used.

Another form of flint axe which is commonly found
here, is the one sketched on PI. VII. fig. 158. It
resembles the former one in this respect, that it has
been thinned in the upper part and sharpened
(though without an edge) in order to be inserted in a
wooden handle, in the same manner as the axe from
Tierra del Fuego; but it dififers therefrom in this,

* I have Been three such copper axes, all found in the earth in
Scania, but there was no account whether they were discovered Ijöng
alone or amongst other antiquities. Although they are of copper, I
still think it most likely that they belong to the same early times as
the sharpened stone axes, and that they are older than the bronze
swords; because, although evidently made as edge-tools, they are
nevertheless composed only of copper, without any admixture of tin,
which shows that they have belonged to a people so rude that they
have not understood how to temper the edge by smelting and adding
tin.

Ch. L] axes. 65

that the broad sides, which in the former are flat, are
here a little convex, and the narrow sides, which in
the former are bent outwards in the lower part, here
are straight. Besides, this axe is thicker and larger
than the former. Its length is sometimes 12^ inches
and more, the breadth across the middle 3^ inches, and
thickness 1^ inch. The usual length is 9-10 inches.

The flint axe here sketched has not been worn or
its edge re-ground; but I possess several of exactly
the same breadth and thickness, which from constant
use have become more or less worn and shorter.
Fig. 159 shows the remaining part of such an axe,
which from constant use and repeated grinding is
nearly worn out. The piece resembles exactly the
upper part of the axe, fig. 158, and we cannot doubt
that it was at first of the same length.

If we more closely examine the shape of the edge
of these worn and frequently re-ground axes, we
can see how they have been helved and used. The
edge, namely, of such axes is never straight, but,
seen sideways, obliquely bow-shaped; it has the
same shape as a rod, a little bent, and which is
thinner and more flexible at one end than at the
other. (See the edge in fig. 160.) The edge of
our common wood-cutter's axe with a long shaft has
just the same shape when it has been used a long
time, and been re-ground. The reason is this, that
the blow dealt by it affects more especially that part
of the edge which lies farthest from the hand holding
the shaft.

We therefore learn herefrom, first, that these axes

66 THE STONE AGK [Ch. I.

have been provided with shafts like our wood-cutter's
axes; and secondly, that they have been employed
in every-day use, during which they have become
blunted, have been re-ground and worn, until they
were entirely worn out. This is evident. It is pro-
bable, at least, that the handle has originally been
fixed over the middle of the axe (fig. 158), and that
the latter has been more firmly fastened in the cleft
of the handle by straps tied crosswise, and that by
degrees, as it became more worn, it has been moved
lower down.

Plate VII. fig. 157 is a flint axe exactly like the
one at fig. 158, but it has not yet been ground, only
rough hewn. I have already observed, that all gix)und
stone implements have been chipped out before being
ground. In almost all flint implements, however well
the grinding may have been performed, we see dis-
tinctly some few traces of rough-hewing. I have exa-
mined a great number of implements either wholly
ground or only chipped, or ground on two and chipped
on two sides (this difiference is therefore not at all
material), but I have not met with one upon which I
have not found marks of preliminary rough-hewing.
This last-mentioned form is sometimes thin and broad,
resembling PI. VII. fig. 153, except that the broad
sides are always a little convex.

Straight axes of other stone than flint, usually of
basalt, occur not unfrequently, especially in those
districts where flint is wanting. The edge is sharp-
ened equally on both sides. In shape they resemble
most frequently PI. VII. fig. 158 j namely, they have

Ch. L] AXES. -67

the broad sides a little convex, and the narrow sides
flat, sometimes concave. The narrow sides are even
occasionally convex, and the whole axe has then a
compressed round appearance; at other times they
are tolerably thin and broad, and at others again this
form is even more flatly convex than fig. 151, and
instead of narrow sides, there is a rounded edge.
(See PI. VII. fig. 152.) Occasionally also it is less
tapering. These axes occur also both ground and
rough-hewn, especially in the north-east part of Scania,
where, however, they mostly are of diorite. Occa-
sionally this form of axe is quite round (PI. VII.
fig. 162) ; it resembles the former in so far that it
tapers towards the upper part, sometimes almost
into a point, both sides at the lower part being equal
and roundly sharpened. An axe of this form is said
to have been once found in a bog in Scania, still
fixed in its rude shaft.

Straight axes of the same general form as fig. 158,
but always smaller and with a hole in the broad side
near the upper part (PI. VIII. fig. 165), though
rather scarce, are occasionally found in the south of
Sweden and in Denmark. They ai'e never of flint,
but always of a talcose material or of greenstone. As
I have previously mentioned, there are never any
drilled holes in flint tools. These axes have been
mounted as fig. 158, and through the hole a strap or
a wooden peg has been passed, in order to fasten it
more firmly to the handle. (Compare * Nord. Tidskr.
för Oldkyndighet,' vol. i. page 425, Tab. II. fig. 11.)
I have seen such an axe found here in Scania, with a

V 2

68 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

projection a little above the middle, as also one with a
projection, but without any hole. (PI. VIII. fig. 164.)
To this division belong, probably, the edge-tools
round which runs a transverse furrow (PI. VIII. figs.
166, 167), unless, indeed, they have not rather been
wedges with which to split wood. The haft has
rested in the fiirrow, and may have consisted of some
round flexible withe (a willow-shoot, for instance),
which has been twisted round the blade, forming a
handle to steady the wedge w^hile it was driven into
the wood by means of a club. This form is never of
flint. Fig. 167 is of hornblende, and was found in a
bog near Lund; fig. 166 is of diorite, and was found
in the ground near Gaddaröd, in the parish of Hörröd,
also in Scania.

Class II. — Implements provided with a Hole for the

Handle.

These are never of flint, but generally of basalt or
of diorite, occasionally of gneiss, potstone, or of horn.
Implements of this kind are not so numerous as those
above mentioned, in the ethnographical collections
which I have had an opportunity of examining. This
may be owing either to their being rarely found
amongst existing savages, or perhaps more to their
not having been preserved by travellers, because, ge-
nerally, it is the war weapons of the savages rather
than the implements used in daily life which have
been brought to our museums. But that these arti-
cles of antiquity, pierced for handles, have belonged
to the aborigines of Scandinavia, is proved by their

^iQ

Ch. I.] HAMMERS AND HAMMER-AXES. 60

being found together with the implements described
above, even in the gallery-tombs, which belong exclu-
sively to the Stone Age.
' They may be divided into :—

A. Those in which the Edge^ or sharpened Part^ has
the same Direction as the Handle.

To this belong : —

§ 1. Hammers (Plate VIII. fig. 172) of stone, and
(fig. 171) of stag-antlers, found amongst stone im-
plements in a peat-bog. They have a shaft-hole close
under the centre, and they end in a straight or flatly
convex square bottom, the top being sharpened like a
wedge. They are of a variety of shapes. The first,
fig. 172, is of diorite, and of a very convenient shape.
It was found in a bog in Scania, and fell into the
hands of a carpenter, who provided it with a handle
and used it a long time in his workshop as a hammer.
Fig. 171 is made of a stag's antler, and has an oblong
square hole for the handle, formed, no doubt, with a
small straight chisel.

Hammer-axes. — In these, as in the former variety,
the hole for the handle is near the middle ; but they
are distinguished by a difl^erent form. Among them
I reckon PI. VIII. fig. 179; it is nearly boat-shaped,
roundly compressed, broadest in the middle, with the
side edge either sharp or rounded ofl^, or cut straight
off into a flat surface ; it ends below in a more or less
distinctly marked knob, and the haft-hole in its back
is surrounded with a raised edge. Hammer-axes of
this form are often made of a grey diorite, and some-

70 TIIE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

times of black basalt. The haft-hole is small in com-
parison to the weight of the hammer itself, which
seems to prove that the handle must have been short.

That this form belongs to the pure Stone Age we
may infer from the circumstance, that one of them
was found together with other things made of stone,
namely, an axe of flint, one of greenstone, a narrow
gouge, and a polygonal grindstone (PL II. fig. 15).
They were in a bank of gravel at Arendala, near Lund.

A hammer-axe of this description was found, in
1842, at Katslösa, together with three broad gouges
of flint. They were lying in a stone cist 12 feet long,
4 feet broad, and 4 feet high, constructed of boulders
cemented together, each of which was a heavy load
for a man. In another similar grave were lying a
broad chisel and several flint-flakes.

Hammer-axes of this shape are sometimes very
beautifully wrought ; as PL VIII. fig. 178, the ori-
ginal of which is made of basalt, well polished, and
was foimd in a heap of stones at Hurfva. A similar
one was found in the so-called King Roe's Cairn.

The specimen figured in PL VIII. fig. 169 is dis-
tinguished by having a keel ridge along the side, and
by the haft-hole, which is not surrounded by a pro-
jecting edge; the top consists of a large convex knob.
It is made of diorite.

Specimens resembling PL VIII. fig. 163 I also
take to be hammer-axes. It is remarkable that they
are, in most instances, made of porphyry, which does
not occur in Scania, where, however, this form of
hammer-axe is frequently met with. PL VIII. figs.

Ch. I.] AMAZON AXE. 71

176, 177, which also have the shaft-hole near the
centre, appear to me to have been battle-axes used
during the actual Stone Age, as well as during a later
period, even, so recently, indeed, as the Iron Age. The
former is proved by their being found in the gaUery-
graves] the latter, by their being found sketched
amongst the war weapons from the Iron Age, on the
incised rocks in the province of Bohusland. (Com-
pare Nilsson, 'Bronsåldern,' page 56.)

§ 2. Amazon Axe (fig. 173). — Stone weapons of
this kind are rather variable, and the central part is
often much shorter than the figure here referred to,
resembling liat shown in fig. 174. The original
of this sketch is from the south of Scania, and is
preserved in my collection, but is not finished, there
being no hole for the handle; but this weapon is
always known by both ends being much expanded
and more or less sharpened. It is exactly like the
axes with which the Amazons are armed, wherever
we see them represented. On a marble sarcophagus
in the Museum of the Louvre, at Paris, bearing
the inscription, ^Sarcophage trouvé ä Salonique en
Macédoine^ the warriors wield axes with one edge
and a pointed sharp back ; but all the Amazons have
such two-edged axes as the one here sketched. The
Amazons are represented with such axes even in
other places also; for instance, on some antique
friezes in the British Museum. In a treatise on
* The Sword of Tiberius ' (in German, 4to., with
coloured engravings), an Amazon is also represented
with a similar axe. It is called ^ Amazon axe.^

72 THE STOXE AGE. [Ch. I. I

Xenophon mentions it in the * Anabasis,' iv. 4; and
Horace speaks of ' Amazonia sectans ' in the Odes, iv.
4, 20.*

§ 3. Helved Wedges (PL IX. figs. 183, 184).— These
are commonly very large, thick, and square, made of
a heavy kind of stone, and have one end sharpened,
the other forming either a rounded or a square flat
surface. The shaft-hole lies nearer the butt than the 1

cutting end.

These have been called axes for throwing; it has
been thought that in battle they were thrown at the
enemy, and various accounts have been referred to
in confirmation of this opinion. It has been alleged
that Thor's hammer, Mjolner^ was thrown from the
hand, but it has been overlooked that Mjohier had the
peculiar property of returning of its own accord to the
hand of its owner. Reference has also been made to
a sentence in Wilh. von Poitier's * Historia Guilhelrai
Conquestris,' in which he says : ^Jactant Angli cuspides

* This form of axe occurs with us during the Stone Age, not only
of the full siz« of stone (PL VIII. figs. 173, 174), but also in the shape of
small ornaments of amber for women (PL VIII. &g. 175), found also
in gallery-graves in West Gothland amongst other ornaments of amber.
But what appears to me to be very remarkable, in an ethnological
point of view, is that exactly the same form of axe which was worn
as an amber ornament by the women in the North during the Stone
Age, was worn by Grecian women, being, however, in that country
made of gold. In the comedy of *Rudens' (the Shipwreck), by Plautus,
Act iv. Scene 4, vv. 112-116, it is said that the girl Palcestra^ fix>m
Athens, amongst the ornaments given to her as a child by her parents,
had also received such an axe, in miniature, of gold (' securicula
anceps'), inscribed with her mother s name. This coincidence is very
difficult to account for. It appears to me to be one of those circum-
stances which deserve the attention of the comparative ethnographer.

Ch. I.] WEDGES AND HOES. 73

et diversorum generum tela^ scevissimasque secures et
Itgnis imposita saxa;^ but one ought to remember
that the word jactare does not always signify to throw
from the hand^ but that it often signifies to brandish,
or stving backwards and forwards ; for instance, jac-
tare ccestus, to brandish the battle-axe. Liv., *' jactare
brachia,* to throw one's arms about. Virg., * jEneid/
V. 376:

altemaque jactat

Brachia protendens, et verberat ictibus auras.

That these stone implements now in question could
not have been used with a long handle is evident from
their being too heavy and unwieldy, and the shaft-hole
being too small. The shaft which was fastened in this
little hole must therefore have been too slender to
allow such a heavy axe being brandished as a weapon,
or applied in daily use to wood-cutting or any similar
purpose. These wedges appear to me to be most
suitable for being held in the left hand by a short
handle, and driven into wood by blows from a club
held in the right hand. I have therefore called this
form handled wedges ; that is to say, a wedge intended
for a handle or shaft. I also class among the shafted
wedges, PI. VIIL fig. 170, made of a stag's antler.

B. TTiose in which the Edge, or sharpened Part, lies

across the Shaft.

Hoes. — It is certainly possible that there may also
be found axes of this form, but they must then have
been cross-axes, or cooper's adzes. But 1 have never
yet seen any of this kind with shaft-holes. The only

74 THE STONE AGE. [Oh. I.

implements of this shape which I have met with
have evidently been hoes. I have two (PL VIII.
figs. 1^0, IHl), which resemble each other in this,
that the sharpening in both is more rounded on the
front part, otherwise thick and convex, and that the
hole is nearest to that part which is not sharpened.
One of them (fig. 180), which is of basalt, has the
shaft-hole lying upwards in an oblique direction, so
that the person using the hoe may be able to avoid
stooping while at work. In the other (fig. 181),
made of the horn of an elk, the shaft-hole is straight
and oval ; it has not been drilled, but scooped out
with some sharp instrument, probably a flint. We
see distinctly how this hoe has, by constant use, been
worn quite smooth up to, and even above, the shaft-
hole. Both these hoes were found in peat-bogs in
Scania ; the one of stone in the Qja bog, near Ystad,
and the other, of elk-horn, in a bog at Sjörup. A hoe
made of a stag's antler is sketched on PL XV. figs.
256, 257, a third of its natural size. It was found in
the south of the province of Scania, and probably in a
peat-moss. It is not certain that these implements
have belonged to the same time and to the same
people as those who built the galleiy-graves^ nor is it
quite certain that these hoes have been used in actual
agriculture. It must, nevertheless, be acknowledged,
that if agriculture, as seems most probable, consisted
originally in burning tracts of forest, and then sowing
among the ashes, these rude hoes must have been very
suitable for such operations. Future discoveries will,
no doubt, in time, solve this as well as other questions.

Cir. I.] BATTLE-AXES. 75

PL IX. fig. 186 shows us the form of an imple-
ment, of basaltic material, not unlike a hoe, but with-
out a shaft-hole. It is possible that it may have
been fastened by means of a strap, or by bast, to a
shaft bent at the end, something like the cross-axes
of the savages (for instance, PL VII. fig. 150), and
that it actually has been a hoe, notwithstanding the
want of a shaft-hole.

DIVISION IV. — SOME FORMS OF STONE IMPLEMENTS
WHICH CANNOT SATISFACTORILY BE CLASSED
AMONGST ANY OF THE FOREGOING DIVISIONS.

To these belong, first, the Batde-axe (PL IX. fig.
189).— This implement is provided with a shaft-hole,
and has four pointed arms projecting in dififerent direc-
tions. It was found in the province of Bohusland,
and is preserved in the Antiquarian Museum of Limd.
It was formerly regarded as the anchor of a boat — an
opinion which I also shared ; but it seems to me now
more probable that it has been a battle-axe. This
is, however, by no means certain. A nearly similar
instrument, on which are engraved several zigzag
lines, has been copied and described by Mr. G. Bruse-
witz, in his beautiful work, ^ Elfsyssels Historiska
Minnen,' page 271. This specimen was also found
in Bohusland, and is preserved in the Museum at
Gothenburg. It seems also to have been a hatde-
axe, provided with a handle. I have not, however,
yet found this form among weapons used by modem
savages.

70 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. I.

2. Flint-jlakes (PL 11. fig. 24). — These are long,
thin, occasionally somewhat bent inwards towards the
point; sharp on both sides; on the inner side flat,
on the outer provided with one, two, or even several
longitudinal ridges. They were obtained by a single
blow on the upper end from a hard stone, as though
peeled off from a flint-core or nucleus. These nuclei
are not rare: one is represented in PI. II. fig. 23.
For evident reasons, no two are exactly alike. They
are sometimes found of considerable length. Flint-
flakes are the simplest and oldest among the flint
implements known. They were used as knives, and
also for various other purposes.

Of these flint-flakes, for instance, different weapons
have been formed. The arrow-point (PI. II. fig. 38)
is merely such a flake, at one end of which a shaft-
point for attachment has been chipped. Fig. 39 re-
presents another, the edges of which have also been
chipped. The square-edged arrows (PI. II. figs. 36, 37)
are made of such flakes, which have been chipped
crosswise^ after which the edges of the flakes have
been formed.

3. Scrapers (PI. IX. fig. 188). — This implement of
flint occurs of various forms, though the one end is
always rounded, the other elongated sometimes to a
slender handle ; on one side convex, on the other flat,
or even concave, being a flake struck right off by a
single blow. Similar stones have been met with in
use amongst the Greenlanders, for scraping the hair
off skins or hides. There is, in the Museum at Copen-
hagen, a similar scraper, from the most northern

Ch. i.] ICE-CHISEL. 77

parts of North America, provided with a handle of
wood, with indentations for the fingers of the person
using it.

4. The stretching Implement^ represented in PI. IX.
fig. 185, ought, I think, to stand next in order. The
widened part, representing the edge, has been rounded
off by constant wear^ probably from being rubbed
against leather or something of that kind. A person
who has lived many years as a mechanic in Green-
land, thinks that he has discovered a great resem-
blance between this stone implement and the bone
implement, provided with a handle, which is there
used for stretching the skins in order to give them
the requisite softness. A somewhat similar stretching
implement of iron is still used in those parts of Scania
where the winter dress of the peasantry consists of
sheep-skin coats.

5. The Ice^chisel (PI. VI. fig. 141),— The imple-
ment here sketched very closely resembles the ice-
chisel of the Greenlanders, and I have therefore given
it the same name. They occur chiefly near the coast,
and are found in greatest number at Lindormabacken,
on the coast of the Baltic, and below the Widsköfte
estate. It may possibly have been intended for an
axe ; but the greater number are so rude, and of such
forms, that it is impossible to guess for what purpose
they were intended.

6. The rough-edged Arrow (PI. II. figs. 36, 37). —
These small hewn flint articles are found in abun-
dance on Lindormabacken, among the above-named ;
they are of the same form, though less in size, and

78 T[IE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

like them, but are rarely found in other localities.
Their purpose has long been a matter of doubt, but
in a bog in Denmark a similar flint-stone has been
found attached to a slender shaft, which proves it to
have been an aiTOW. Regarding this, it may be re-
marked that in the Egyptian department in the
British Museum there are a great number of arrows,
which are provided in front or at the point of at-
tachment with a metal pin, and end in an expanded
transverse edge. The shafts are of wood, very long,
and have in the back end an indentation for the bow-
string. One of these arrows was provided with a
flint-flake lying crosswise.

In Rosellini's ' Monumenti,' PI. XV., is the figure of
a man shooting an arrow from a bow just like those in
the British Museum. On PI. CXVII. many warriors
are sketched with bows and rough-edged arrows.

7. Gimlet or Avgerl (PI. II. fig. 25). — Amongst our
antiquities we find some with drilled holes, even fix)m
the pure Stone Age. The savage of that age under-
stood the art of drilling holes. Implements with
bored holes are, however, never of flint, generally of
basalt and trap, sometimes of gneiss and potstone,
even of horn. The savage did not understand boring
holes in flint. We sometimes find among collections
of antiquities, flint axes with shaft-holes; but if we
observe them more carefully, we shaU find that these
holes have not been made by the hand of man, but
are the traces of some natural hole in the flint. The
savage did not drill the hole, but sometimes chipped
the edge of it more or less, so as to be enabled to use

Ch. 1.] GIMLET. 70

it as a shaft-hole. I have seen several such flint axes,
both in the Museum at Copenhagen and elsewhere.

Though we have only been able to guess hitherto
how the savage bored the shaft-hole in his axes, yet
we seem near the truth, as we are even able to call
experience to our help. During a visit to Orö pilot-
station, on the coast, in the province of Ostro-Gotha,
I saw a fisherman engaged in drilling holes in flat
slate boulders, to use as plummets for his fishing-line.
He worked his gimlet, or auger, with a drill-bow
(spärrborr)j and the gimlet itself was of iron, not
pointed, as one would suppose, but of the above-men-
tioned form and with a rough edge, like a small chisel,
or screwdriver. The hole made in the stone with it
was not rough in the bottom, but scooped out, just
such as is found in those stone implements where the
bored hole is more or less deeply indented from the
surface, or like the indentations on hammer-stones, to
place the fingers upon during use. I conclude from
this, that the savage used a similar gimlet, or drill,
and that his flint gimlet had the same form as that
of the Orö fisherman, namely, that of a small chisel.
If, as I suppose, the stone (PL II. fig. 25) has been a
gimlet, then the pointed end has, probably, been
fastened in a handle, and the rough end used for
boring. We meet with stone axes now and then,
made of basalt or diorite, and bored with a centre-bit ;
and when they have not been quite bored through,
a plug is always present in the intended hole. These
stone implements, which are never found in gallery-
graves or in our oldest bogs, I consider as belonging

80 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. L

to the age when metals were in use, and most likely
to the Iron Age. I have heard it said that such
bored holes were made with a wooden pin and wet
sand, but this I consider as an impossibility. I have
before me now an axe of diorite, on which there is
the commencement of such a hole. It consists of a
circular ring, veiy small, and evidently made with a
metal instrument.

8. Anvil The instrument sketched on PI. IX.

fig. 187 is rough, and made of a hard quartzy sand-
stone. The lower half of this instrument is nar-,
rower than the other, nearly square, with two broad
and two narrower sides; the upper part is thicker,
somewhat rounded, and finishes with a flat even sur-
face. It is considered to have been a smith's anvil,
but this is somewhat doubtful. The age even to which
it belonged is uncertain.

9. PI. XI. fig. 214 seems to have been a hunting^
whistle. It is made of an antler, and is found at the
bottom of one of the bogs in Scania. It is evident
that it has been a whistle^ and it does not seem impro-
bable that it was used on hunting excursions, particu-
larly as we know that even during the pure Stone Age
dogs existed, and were probably used in the chase.

10. PL X. fig. 204. A punch, made of an antler.

11. The Saw (PL V. fig. 93) This instrument,

which has already been mentioned, is very like a lance-
point, sharpened and thin at the base, where it was
fastened to the haft; but from the many teeth at
regular distances from each other, I am disposed to
think that it has probably been a saw.

Ch. L] SAWS AND STONE BEADS. 81

12. PL X. fig. 205 is an implement of flint, the
use of which I cannot guess. It is oblong square,
very thin, chipped on both sides, and with all four
edges sharpened. It is not a common type.

13. Stone Beads Generally of a porous kind of

fine sandstone, and provided with a round hole in the
centre. They are of various forms and sizes; from 1
to If inch in diameter, either flat on both sides, in
which case they are generally smooth (PI. IX. fig.
199), or tapering upwards, and in that case usually
fluted horizontally, or also rounded on both sides with
a raised border round the hole (PI. IX. fig. 192).

The former are the rudest, and appear to be the
most ancient. They are found in the earth and in
peat-bogs, and where they are met with at all they
generally occur in great numbers. I suppose that
they were used as plummets for drag-nets^ and con-
sequently for the same purpose for which leaden balls
are now employed. Some of these stone plummets
are considerably larger, and appear to me to have
been used as flies in a spinning-wheel.

14. (PI. X. fig. 208.) This is an instrument made
of hard sandstone, oblong, and with six grooves
running lengthwise, between which are rounded ele-
vations. Possibly this was used to keep the threads
separate while bast-rope was twisted. It is out of a
peat-moss in the south of Scania.

15. (PI. XV. fig. 260.) An oblong round pebble of
flint. Along the one side it is evenly ground, flat
convex, and seems to have been used as a rubbing-

82 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

stone, for pressing down smouth seams. This form
is not uncommon.

DIVISION V. — ORNAMENTS.

To these belong all wrought and pierced articles of
amber, whether large or small. They vary in shape ;
sometimes they resemble stone plummets, but are
more frequently smaller in size (PI. IX. figs. 194, 197),
occasionally, however, as large (PI. IX. fig. 198; com-
pare 199 of stone and 197 of amber); sometimes
they have other forms, resembling stone implements
in miniature. Thus we have those which in shape
resemble axes, hammers, wedges, hammer-axes, and
so on. The form shown on PL IX. fig. 195 is no
doubt intended to represent on a small scale some
kind of stone implement not yet discovered. That
these amber ornaments liave been worn round the
neck is quite certain, as they have actually been
found surrounding the neck of skeletons in gallery-
graves.*

Together with stone implements and the amber
beads just described, glass beads (PL IX. figs. 201,
202 ) of a very rude manufacture are sometimes found
in the old sli» bogs, and in ^.rj^,^. The
hole in them is not drilled, but has been either blown,
or made by passing some hard instrument of metal
or burnt clay through the molten mass ; and there is
no other trace of grinding than that the edge, pro-
jecting round the hole on one side, has been ground

* Gotheborgs Handl.y 1806, page 98. Monuments on Axevalla
Plain.

Ch. i.] ornaments. 83

away. They thus show us the infancy of the art of
glass-blowing ; but yet it is scarcely to be supposed
that they could have been fabricated by the same
people who made use of axes and chisels of stone.
They must be referred, undoubtedly, to some foreign
nations who had commercial intercourse with the
savage aborigines of Scaadinavia, and who bartered
their glass beads and similar wares for amber, furs,
and other produce, in the same manner as in our own
days goods are exchanged between Europeans and the
savages in North America and in the islands of the
Pacific. The teeth of wild animals, pierced through
and used as ornaments, have also been found in
gallery-graves.

To this series belong also some objects made of
stone. Such an ornament, consisting of fine sand-
stone, is shown on PL IX. fig. 196 ; they are but
rarely met with. With these are probably to be
classed the articles shown on PI. IX. figs. 192, 193,
which are sometimes made of stone, sometimes of
burnt clay. I am also of opinion that the ornamented
object of bone represented on PI. IX. fig. 200, has
belonged to this class. It was found in the earth
at Bjellerup, in Scania. There is another in the
Copenhagen Museum, made of amber, and ornamented
with the same figures.

§ 3. Buttons of Amber (PL IX. figs. 190, 191) It

is not difficult to see how these have been used;
a strap, provided with a knot at one end, has been
passed through the hole, and has been attached with
the other end to one side of the dress (the skin

a 2

84 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

with which the savage was clothed) ; to the other
side of the dress was attached a strap, forming a loop
by way of button-bole. A great number of such
buttons are often found lying together. It is possible
that the stone objects shown on PL IX. figs. 192, 193,
may have been buttons, and that they may have been
used in the same way.

DIVISION VI. — VESSELS OP BURNT CLAY OR STONE.

The vessels of burnt clay, which are found together
with stone implements and skeletons in the most an-
cient graves, cannot have been placed there to hold
the ashes of the dead, as in those times dead bodies
were not burnt. They were evidently deposited in
the grave from the same motive as other household
furniture belonging to the departed; it may there-
fore be assumed that they were in daily use by the
aborigines : we do not know for what particular
])urposes, but these may have been manifold. The
larger vessels have no doubt been used as kitchen
utensils for boiling meat, because those who know
how to burn clay for pots would also understand how
to boil meat for food. Most of the existing savages
understand this mode of cooking, although they more
frequently broil or roast their meat, fish, and other
food. The natives of the Brazils also possess burnt
clay vessels, which are made by hand. After having
first formed the bottom of the vessel, they roll the
clay into a long thin cylinder, lay it in a circle on
the bottom, and form the border out of it ; on the

Ch.I.] burnt clay and stone vessels. 86

top of this they place another similar cylinder, then
paste the two together with water, and polish the
vessel inside and outside with a shell. Continuing
their work in this manner, they give the vessel any
shape and form they please. When completed, they
impress some kind of ornament on the surface. When
the vessel has been finished, they bum it in fire, in the
open air, as verbally described to me by Dr. Natterer.
The clay vessel here represented on PL X. fig. 209,
and which was found by the Rev. M. Bruzelius in the
above-mentioned tomb, in the Åsabögen, near Quis-
tofta (see *Iduna,' vol. ix. p. 285), has evidently been
made by hand, without a potter's wheel, and in the
same manner as the clay vessels of the South Ame-
rican savages, and the ornaments on the surface seem
to have been made with a wooden peg, or something
of that kind. The vessel has no ears, but the edge,
which runs round the middle, is on both sides provided
vnth two holes, and there are two smaller similar
holes just below the border round the top. It is
evident that a strap has passed through these holes,
forming a kind of handle, and that it has been fastened
in the border at the top by means of another thinner
strap, which has passed through the two smaller holes.
The vessel not being more than 4f inches deep, and
of about the same width at the widest part, it can-
not well have been used for cooking; but it has
most probably been employed for raising and car-
rying water for drinking.

Burnt clay vessels are found among most of the
existing nations, savage as well as civilised, and they

86 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

are likewise found in all sepulchral mounds, from
the earliest period up to the close of paganism.
Fragments of vessels from North America, exactly
like ours from the earliest ages, and ornamented in
the same manner, are found together with stone imple-
ments also resembling ours.

I have, however, not had an opportunity of care-
fully examining a sufficient number of clay vessels,
out of graves from different ages. This subject,
therefore, I must leave to the more careful researches
of others.

Plate X. fig. 210 represents a vessel rudely formed
and scooped out of a compact limestone belonging to
the chalk formation. It has been tolerably round,
not deep, and provided with a thick round border.
On one side is a small scooped-out ear : whether a
corresponding one was found on the opposite side,
where the border has been knocked off, cannot now
be seen. It was discovered in a gravel-pit; it is
therefore doubtful to what period it belongs.

DIVISION VII. — IMPLEMENTS WHICH HAVE BECOME WORN

OUT OR BROKEN THROUGH USE.

By carefully enquiring into the manner in which
implements have become worn, we can frequently as-
certain the way in which they have been used. We
have already directed the reader's attention to the
sloping edge of the worn and re-ground square axe,
and inferred therefrom that this axe must have been
provided with a long handle or haft, somewhat like
that of our wood-cutter's axe.

Ch. I.] WORN AND BROKEN IMPLEMENTS. 87

We have further shown that in a great number of
the implements which are provided with a haft-hole,
this has been very small in comparison to the size
of the implement itself; and we have from this cir-
cumstance drawn the conclusion that the handle could
not have been long. It must have been tolerably
short in the hammers (PI. VIII. figs. 169, 172, 178,
179), in the hammer-axes (PI. VIII. figs. 176, 177),
very short in the helved wedges (PI. IX. figs. 183, 184) ;
but it may have been tolerably long in the Amazon
axe (PL VIII. fig. 173), and very long in the hoes
(PI. VIII. figs. 180, 181, and PI. XV. figs. 256, 257).
We find, further, in the hammers, distinct traces of
much wear on the knob and on the sides, as well as
on the sides of the wedge. If they had been used
merely as weapons of war, they could not have been
worn in the same manner. We find, moreover,
amongst the helved wedges some so much worn down
that only a small part of them still remains (PI. IX.
fig. 184). We draw ftom hence the conclusion that
they must have been used in every-day life, and that
they could not have been worn in such a manner as
they are, if they had merely been battle-axes; still
less if they had been lying in pagan temples as
symbols : whereas this would have been the result if
they had been used for wood-splitting or some such
work.

This remark applies also to some of the carpenter's
axes (PL VII. figs. 158-160, as weU as figs. 151, 152).
We can easily see by the sloping edge of the much-
worn and fi-equently re-ground axes (figs. 159, 160),

88 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. I.

that they have been employed for working in wood.
Sometimes implements with shaft-holes have been
broken right across while being used at work ; after
which they have been provided with a new hole (PL X.
figs. 206, 207). Equally illustrative of our subject is
the manner in which the spear (PI. XIII. fig. 225)
has been worn while being used. This spear has
evidently been of the same length, size, and shape as
PI. III. fig. 55. It has been inserted in the shaft to
about 1^ inch of its length ; but has, while being
used, been broken straight off near the shaft (the pin
having previously been broken off), and has then with
its broader end been wedged into the shaft to a depth
of about 1^ inch. Afterwards, having become blunted
by frequent use, it has been repeatedly sharpened on
both edges, almost down to the shaft, by means of a
hammer-stone, in shape like PL I. figs. 6, 10, or PL I.
figs. 1, 5. The broad part fixed in the shaft could, of
course, not be worn, for which reason the spear-point,
when inserted in the shaft, has got a marked indenta-
tion in both edges. I have in my collection several
such worn-down and broken-oflF spear-heads.

This wear and tear shows that the savage was in
the habit of always sharpening his pointed hunting
weapons by means of a hammer-stone ; and there is
no doubt that he carried with him on his hunting
excursions a portable instrument for this purpose.
The spear-head (PL XIII. fig. 226) has evidently also
been sharpened by means of such a tool, so that its
blade, which originally resembled the spear-head (PL
III. fig. 44), has ultimately become almost as sharp

Ch. I.] IMPLEMENTS REMODELLED. 80

as an awl. Spear-points worn in the same manner
are not uncommon in collections.

All. this coincides perfectly with the explanation
which I have given already (at p. 10) of the articles
of antiquity (PI. I.) which I have called hammer-
stones, i.e., chipping-stones or hones, and to which ex-
planation I have been led by the unmistakable traces
which they show of blows against some hard stone.

In- several of the antiquarian museums in Europe
there are knives and harpoons of flint obtained from
modern savages, worn and sharpened in a similar man-
ner ; and we know now that in such cases hammer-
stones have been used very much like those of ancient
times.

On the upper end of hroad gouges^ such as PI. VI.
figs. 139, 140, we often see distinct marks of blows
dealt upon them by clubs while scooping out wood.

DIVISION VIII. — IMPLEMENTS WHICH HAVE BEEN TRANS-
FORMED INTO IMPLEMENTS OP ANOTHER KIND.

We meet not unfrequently with stone implements
which have evidently been formed out of a broken
fragment of a tool belonging to a totally different
class. I will mention a few which are preserved in
my former collection, now in the Academy at Lund ;
but as it would be very difficult to make any intelli-
gible sketches of them, I do not attempt to do so.

1. Square narrow chisels made out of a spear-shaft,
as is perfectly evident at a glance.

2. Axe made out of a large broken knife-blade.

00 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. I.

3. Axe, narrow and rounded at top, formed out of
a worn-out broad axe.

4. Spear-head, somewhat like PL III. fig. 44, made
out of a large knife-blade.

5. Arrow-head, like PL III. fig. 48, made out of
the point of a knife-blade.

6. Semilunar knife, transformed into a saw or
toothed spear-head, PL V. fig. 90.

. These facts show (what, however, now scarcely
needs a proof) that the above-mentioned stone objects
have been employed as tools in every-day use; and
that they have, while being so used, become worn,
resharpened, and broken, and that the fragments have
been made into other kinds of tools.

I ought, finally, to remark that sometimes, though
very rarely, we find that even the aborigines of this
country, who possessed weapons and implements only
of stone, bone, and similar materials, endeavoured to
sketch outlines of their animals. I have figured
two such sketches (PL XV. figs. 258, 259) on a hoe
made of a stag's antler (PL XV. figs. 256, 257), found
in a bog in the south of Scania. These are evidently
first attempts in the art of drawing, and can in no
wise be compared with the masterly sketches of the
savages in Perigord, who have so well figured their
reindeer and other animals.

Cn. I.] AWLS. 01

APPENDIX.

PI. XVI. figs. 263-265 are of bone, and seem to
have been a kind of awl for boring holes in skin, and
so on. That they could not have been used as needles
is proved by the projecting knob on the upper end :
the hole at the end and sides shows that these, like the
small whetstones (PI. II. figs. 18-20) were carried in
a strap attached to the belt. These forms, so far as
I know, were not known before their recent simulta-
neous discovery in Sweden and Denmark.* They
belong to the Stone Age, and have been found in
Sweden in a gallery-grave at Luttra, in West Goth-
land, and in Denmark, in a similar tomb on the island
of Seeland; f formed of a bear's and wolfs tusks
pierced through, and having served doubtless as
ornaments worn round the neck. Figs. 266, 268,
belong to the variety already described on page 77,
and sketched in PI. II. figs. 36, 37. They are again
brought forward here to show how much this form
varies. Fig. 269 is a piece of a ground axe, very
roughly hewn into a chisel. Fig. 270 represents a
stone disc, ornamented with circular concavities, and
was probably used as a button. Figs. 271, 273, we
will describe in Chapter III.

* See the Äntiguariåk Tidskrift för Sverige^ vol. i. page 262, fig.
17 ; Aarböger för Nordisk Oldkundighety vol. iii. page 213, PL
III. figs. 7, 9.

t Antiquarisk Tidskrift^ vol. i. page 264, figs. 261, 262.

»2 TILE STONE AGE. [Ch. U.

CHAPTER II.

BETB06PEGT OF THE WHOLE COLLECTION, AND AN ATTEMPT
TO BBAW FBOM IT A POSITIVE BESULT.

I WELL cornmence this chapter by citing a few
opinions which have been expressed about these an-
tiquities, but which I cannot consider correct.

As long as it was taken for granted, without any
proof, that all these implements had belonged to one
and the same tribe, namely, to the warlike, man-
sacrificing Goths, from whom we ourselves descend,
so long these antiquities were pronounced to be wea-
pons of war and instruments of sacrifice, or sym-
bols of worship of the Gothic heathen god, Thor.
But it appears to have been forgotten that the most
ancient records of this very people unmistakably in-
dicate the then existence of still ruder tribes, whom
they had found in the country on their arrival,
and with whom they had bloody feuds ; nor does it
appear to have been remembered that these more
ancient, and still ruder people, in order to subsist,
must necessarily have had implements, which were
doubtless rude, like themselves. We must either sup-
pose that no other race than the present ever lived
in the country, or else we must admit that many of
our ancient implements may have belonged to this
more ancient people. We shall enquire in the fol-

Ch. ILj implements, not weapons. 93

lowing chapter whether several separate tribes did
live here ; in this, we will enumerate the usual modes
of explaining these antiquities, and state why we
cannot consider them to be satisfactory.*

Thus, first, respecting the supposition that they
were merely weapons of war. Let us glance over
them, from the first to the last, to decide which of
them were exclusively made use of for that purpose.

No one can suppose the fish-hooks (PL II. figs.
28, 29, and 30) to have been offensive or defensive
weapons. .Fishing-weights (PL II. figs. 31-35), if
they were fixed at the end of a string, might certainly
be used as weapons of war in case of need; but that
they were not intended for this purpose may be
inferred, partly because similar sinkers are still used
by savage people, and partly from the fact that
they have nowhere been met with, so employed,
amongst savages, although it is to their weapons of
war that the attention of Europeans has been espe-
cially directed.

Plate III. figs. 43, 45, 47, 48, represent harpoons,
which are so similar to those still used by savage
people, that their purpose cannot be questioned. The
small flint arrows (PL V. figs. 94-98) resemble those
which are still used in some places for shooting game ;
that they have, however, in case of need, sometimes
been used as weapons of war, we have also evidence.
As to the curved knives (PL V. figs. 87-90), the

* Tbe reader will please remember that this was written for the
iirst edition) upwards of twenty years ago. Now, perhaps, some of it
may be considered superfluous.

04 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. II.

chisel, the convex axe, the cross-axe, &c., no one, I
think, can suppose that any of these instruments were
manufactured expressly to be used in war. The re-
maining forms are, the spear, the knife, the flint-pointed
pike-shaped arrow, the straight axe, the hammer, and
the hafted wedge.

1. With regard to the spear (PI. III. figs. 55, 57),
it appears at first sight as if it may have been a
formidable weapon of war ; but if we look into the
matter a little more closely, we shall probably come
to a difierent opinion. A man who goes to war does
not go like an assassin against a defenceless victim,
but in open battle against an armed foe. Thus it is
evident that a warrior armed with such a thin brittle
flint spear would get it broken at the first onset, and
become disarmed. This long and thin flint spear
could not therefore be fit for a weapon of war. It has
been asserted that it would be the more fatal if it were
broken in the wound; but here again the thought
is of murder, not of war. I will not deny that the
lance may possibly, on some occasions, have been
used as a weapon of murder; various things have
been used for the same purpose. But that it was
chiefly used as a hunting weapon we may learn fi-om
the savages of North America, who still use similar
flint spears for the chase (PL III. fig. 54, page 39).

2. The axe is so necessary an instrument of daily
use, even amongst the rudest savages, that we can-
not suppose it to have been exclusively a weapon of
war. The savage here in the North required Avood
for warmth, timber for building his hut, a boat for

Ca. U.] IMPLEMENTS, NOT WEAPONS. 96

fishing, &c. For all this the axe would necessarily
be required. How this was worn down by use, was
sharpened and again worn, so that the edge became
hacked like that of our own wood-axes, we have
already shown (PI. VII. figs. 15.9, 160).

It is quite impossible that an axe, which was only
used for war, could be thus worn out to the stump,
and get a hacked edge: this could arise only fi*om
daily use.

3. The hafted wedge (PL VI. figs. 129, 130). This
has been called the mace of war, and the hammer
(PI. VIII. figs. 172, 179, &c.), the hammer of war;
as if in those remote times mankind did not require
anything to subsist on, but only to fight with ; they
are not allowed to have had any implements, but
only weapons. But, it is manifest, by the manner in
which these antiquities were worn by daily use (in
particular the hafted wedge), that they were em-
ployed as wedges to be driven into wood by a mallet.
We do not, however, mean to deny that the savage,
in case of emergency, may have seized upon it, to
defend himself against an attack.

4. The knife exactly resembles the New Zealand
stone knife on PI. III. fig. 65, which certainly was
used for domestic purposes.

5. The sharpened arrow (PI. II. figs. 39, 40) may
no doubt have been used in war ; but it is likewise a
suitable hunting weapon, and well adapted for killing
the larger mammalia.*

• That Buch sharpened arrows as PL II. figs. 39, 40, have been
found in tumnli on the plain of Marathon, where the Persian army

98 THE STOXE AGE. [Ch. IL

From this we can perceive that all the stone imple-
ments which have been described and sketched here
are perfectly suitable implements for a rude tribe,
which subsisted here in the North principally by
hunting and fishing; that most of them could not
even have been used for weapons of war, and that
almost all the rest while in use were worn in such a
manner as to show that they were employed for
peaceable and domestic purposes.*

It has likewise been asserted that all spears and
knives were used as sacrificial knives in the worshij^
of Odin. It is perhaps possible that a few may
have been used for that purpose, and that the wor-
shippers of Odin, who, however, evidently already
had metal for implements and weapons, used flint for
sacrificial knives.f

was beaten bj the Athenians, under the command of Miltiades, a
countryman of mine, who has visited the battle-field, told me a
few years since. But this kind of arrow was likewise used for
hunting larger animals, and it is probable that it was with such an
arrow that the IJruB^ the skeleton of which is now in the Zoological
Museum at Lund, was woimded (though not killed).

* I do not, however, mean to deny that some of them were used
in war. We have reason to suppose that every tribe, when they
still remained in the lowest degree of civilisation, would use both
implements and weapons of war made of flint, when this kind of
stone was to be found. Even the Egyptians appear, during the most
ancient times, to have made use of flint points for arrows and spears
as weapons of war. Such were found by Mr. Brugsch on Mount
Sinai, where, in olden times, according to tradition, an Egyptian
garrison had been quartered. — Wanderungen nach den Turkié- Minen
und der Sinai-Halbinsel, Leipzig, 1866. (Page 71.)

f It is quite possible tliat flint knives were occasionally used at
these divine services, but neither history nor even tradition, as far
as I have hitherto been able to ascertain, relate anything of the sort.

Ch. II.] RELIGIOUS IMPLEMENTS OF STONE. 97

Such was, we know, the case with several ancient
nations, and many instances of it occur in history.
When the Jews journeyed out of Egypt, they were
already well acquainted with iron, and yet Zipporah,
the wife of Moses, circumcised her son with a sharp
stone ; * and when Joshua again introduced the sacra-
ment of circumcision, which had been forgotten during
the wandering in the desert, he used the same instru-
ment that had formerly been used for that purpose,
namely, the stone knife.f As far as we know, circumci-
sion was practised by the Egyptian priests — it belonged
to the ceremonies of reception in their order; and
according to Herodotus, J the Egyptians used a sharp
Ethiopian stone at the embalming of their corpses.
This last-named statement corresponds also perfectly
with the fact that there are in the Egyptian antiquarian
collections which I have seen at Berlin, and at Paris,
in the Louvre, besides arrows and other weapons
made of metal, some sharp-edged implements of flint,
which probably, thereforcj were used at the embalm-
ing.

The Phoenicians, likewise, after they had become
acquainted with the use of metals, took sacred oaths

In SturlÖger*8 Saga (chap, xviii.) we are told of a house of offering
in Bjarmalaud with the images of Thor and Odin. The priestess
waved in her hand a short two-edged sword — perhaps a sacrificial
knife — the two edges of which appeared to sparkle. Therefore it
was bright, and consequently of metal. Nowhere in our records is
mention made of a sacrificial knife of flint ; such were, however,
probably in existence nevertheless.

* Ex. iv. 25.

t Josh. V. 2,

J Herod., book ii. chap. Ixxxvi.

08 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. II.

at the altar in this manner. The person about to be
sworn held a lamb in the left hand and a flint knife in
the right, vowing by gods and man that if he broke the
promise given, the god might slay him the same way
that he killed the lamb.* When the Horatii and the
Curiatii were to decide the fate of Rome and Alba
by single combat, the Romans were no doubt well
acquainted with weapons of metal, and yet Livy re-
lates (* Histor.,' chap. i. 24) that the priest, at the
sacrifice, killed the victim with a flint knife; and other
instances might be mentioned. In the same manner
it is possible that the worshippers of Odin (who evi-
dently, until the introduction of Christianity, ofi'ered
human sacrifices,f in accordance with a barbarous
custom, which, no doubt, had its origin far back in
ancient times) used flint knives at their sacrifices;
although, if such had been the case, it appears strange
that it is nowhere mentioned. But even if the prac-
tice of human sacrifice be admitted, independently of
historical testimony, there is no connection between
it and the flint knives and flint spears which lie in
the gallery-tombs ; at the most it may serve to explain
those which, with metal weapons and burnt bone-
splinters, are occasionally to be found in more recent

• Corn. Nep. Hahnib.^ edit. Kuchen.

j* It is singular, however, that human sacrifices are nowhere
spoken of in the Eddas. (Comp. Finn Magnusen, Edda Seem.) This
is nevertheless a proof, amongst manj others, that the Eddas are not
much to be depended on for historical knowledge as to the worship-
pers of Odin and their devotional customs. More trustworthy
information is obtained fi-om the first missionaries and from tho
proceedings of the worshippers of Odin in foreign countries.

Ch. II.J RELIGIOUS IMPLEMENTS OF STONE. 09

heathen tombs. The former have, as already sliowii,
no doubt been used chiefly for hunting.

It is well known that some antiquaries have thought
themselves justified in pronouncing these stone wea-
pons to be symbols of a primeval fire-worship. It
has been asserted, e.g., that the flint axe was a re-
ligious symbol, which in its substance (the flint) con-
tained the holy fire, and in its shape (the wedge)
betokened the quality of lightning ; namely, to cleave.
Such explanations may possibly be considered inge-
nious, but they want every trace of historical as well
as ethnological proof. They betray, moreover, a
paucity of information which alone ought to have
prevented any such rash suggestions. Any one who
will but glance over an extensive collection of these
antiquities, may easily convince himself that objects
of exactly the same shapes occur, not only of flint,
but likewise of greenstone (aphanite, diorite), basalt,
slate, &c., even of bone, deer's horn, and other sub-
stances, which certainly do not contain any ' holy
fire ; ' and yet they had undoubtedly the same signi-
fication* and object, and answered the same purpose
as the articles of flint, together with which they are
found. By this simple observation, the hypothesis is
thus thoroughly refuted. The very small specimens
which are sometimes to be met with, resembling the
large ones in everything biit their size, and which
have likewise been regarded as symbols, if they were
not ornaments, were perhaps made for boys, to give
them an early training in the use of arms. Thus the
Greenlanders are said to provide their boys with

100 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. II.

suitable small ' kajaks ' and darts. Such, on the other
hand, as are made of amber in the shape of axes, &c.,
were ornaments like those of the Greeks, which were
made of gold. (See page 72.)

Having, in the preceding part, described and
sketched, one by one, our most ancient antiquities of
stone and bone, and having, as far as possible, com-
pared them with those instruments of the same mate-
rials which are still made use of in some countries, let
us again throw a glance over the whole collection,
that we may, as it were, bring together into one
single view the scattered ideas which it has given us
respecting the degree of civilisation and mode of living
of the people who used them.

In the first place, we find similar implements
among all people who still remain at a very low stage
of human civilisation ; and amongst them only. We
have seen that similar implements, as Lite as the last
century, were used by the savages of New Zealand,
Taheite, Easter Island, Nootka, California, Boothia,
Greenland, Australia, and parts of North America ;
but wherever civilisation has diffused her light they
have been thrown aside. Hence we may safely come
to the conclusion, that the people who, in Scandinavia,
made use of similar implements, stood in the same
low degree of civilisation as these sava^res.

Secondly, we have seen the very same kind of
chisels, both of stone and of bone, from New Zealand
(PI. VI. figs. 129, 130, 132, 133), and from Scania
and Möen (PI. VI. figs. 127, 128, 131) ; similar chisels
with hafts, from Nootka (PI. VI. fig. 135), and from

Ch. n.] MATERIALS OF EARLY IMPLEMENTS. 101

Denmark (fig. 136) ; spears of flint and bone from
Scania (PL III. figs. 55, 57, 58), and from the most
northerly parts of North America (PI. III. figs. 54,
5S) ; fish-hooks of flint and bone from Scania (PL II.
figs. 28-30), and of the same kind of bone and shell
from Taheite (PL IT. figs. 26, 27) ; straight axes from
Tierra del Fuego (PL VII. fig. 155), both of flint
(PL VII. fig. 153) and copper (PL VII. fig. 148),
and one perfectly similar of shell, from California
(PL VII. fig. 147); hammers from Scania made of
diorite (PL VIII. figs. 1G9, 172) and of stag's horn
(PL VIII. fig. 171), &c. From all this, we come to
the conclusion that in Scandinavia, as in the South
Sea Islands and in America, the savage did not con-
fine himself to one single material for his imple-
ments, but had resort to any suitable substance that
he could obtain.

Thirdly, we may infer the mode of living of the
people who made use of them. That these people
practised angling, both in the sea and the lakes, is
apparent by the fish-hooks and the places where
these have been found ; that they practised hunting
on the water with harpoons and spears, like the
savages of North America, we can tell by their per-
fectly similar implements. They also, like the
latter, made use of the dart or the fowling-arrow
(PL VI. figs. 124-126), which could not be used
except on the water. The savages of Scandinavia
consequently had boats. These seem to have been
excavated trunks of trees, for the broad gouge ( PL VI.
figs. 139, 140) has evidently been used for excavating

102 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. II.

wood.* They knew the use of fire, for they under-
stood how to burn clay into vessels, very much like
those made by the savages both of South and North
America. They also had, no doubt, like these latter,
huts in which to live. These huts were probabl}'
of the same shape as the sepulchral huts (PI. XIV.
figs. 243-246, or figs. 249, 250), in which latter the
aborigines were deposited after their death, doubled
up in their graves in the same posture as that in
which they had during their lifetime been accustomed
to sit in their huts. (See Chapter III.) In order to
build their huts, they must have used various kinds
of tools: the felling-axe (PI. VII. figs. 158-160, 153)
for felling the trees and chopping the logs ; the chisel
(PL VI. figs. 127, 134) to cut holes in them, etc. For
splitting wood, they probably used the hafted wedge
(PI. IX. figs. 183, 184), which they drove in with a
mallet, for traces of blows are to be seen both on the
plane of the mallet and on the wedge.

They used buttons (PI. IX. fig. 191); conse-
quently, they did not merely wrap themselves up in
whole hides, but had clothes which were cut out.
These clothes were probably made from the skins of
those animals which they killed in the chase.f For

* It is remarkable tliat the denomination ika, which is still the
name for such excavated boats, both in Scania, where tliey also are
called ekoy as well as in Norway, is derived from a Lapland word
{Urdaji, 3, page 276). Christie has found a number of Lapland
words in the Norwegian dialects, and a great many of those which
he cites are to be found as well in the Scanian dialect.

t If we carefully examine the earth round the skeletons in our
gallery- tombs, or tumuli, we may possibly find in them hair from the
skins in which the corpses were wrapped when they were deposited

Ch. II.] LIFE OF SCANDINAVIAN SAVAGES. 108

cutting these clothes they must have used a knife;
perhaps chiefly the curved knife (PL V. figs. 87, 88,
91): possibly also such an instrument as PI. VII.
figs. 151, 152. They possessed the dog, like almost all
other savage nations ; but, like them, they had hardly
any other tame animals, at least we have no satisfac-
tory evidence that any bones of other animals have
been found in their tombs, while there are many of
the dog and various mid animals, such as the wild
boar, the hedgehog, the wild cat (?), the stag, the
elk, etc. No images are found amengst them, and
they had evidently no knowledge of written language ;
neither letters nor hieroglyphics ; for on their monu-
ments, tombs, urns, or implements, we never meet
with any sign of letters. Neither do we find amongst
them any evidence of the use of metals, either ham-
mered or cast.

A remarkable fact in this branch of ethnography is
the great resemblance that exists amongst the stone
implements of nations of different tribes, during very
different periods and in the most distant countries
of the earth. If the question were asked, whether
we could infer from the resemblance of the imple-
ments that they had belonged to one and the same
tribe, we must, after a strict examination, answer No ;
they only indicate the same degree of civilisation. To
give a few decisive proofs of this thesis, I have here,
on PI. V. figs. 99-103, 106-111, sketched similar stone
arrow-heads, with a tongue for the shaft, from various

in the tomb ; and in that case we can infer whether these skins
were of deer, seal, etc.

104 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. II.

distant parts of the world; also (fig. 113) a triangular
arrow-head from Scania, and (fig. 114) a similar one
from Pennsylvania. But above all, the small heart-
shaped arrow-heads (fig. 106) of flint, from Scania,
and (fig. 107) of obsidian, from Tierra del Fuego,
both of which are, with regard to shape and mode of
construction, even in the most minute details and
when closely viewed with a microscope, surprisingly
similar, as if they had been made by the same hand
and on the same day.* And yet there is between
their places of ^origin such a vast distance as the
space between Sweden and Tierra del Fuego; and
such a gulf of time, that the one was made about
twenty years ago, and the other is at least from 2,000
to 3,000 years old.

Indeed, it is hardly possible to explain the close
resemblance between the fishing-tools and hunting
weapons of the most distinct savage nations, as to
time, place, and origin, without assuming that all of
them, in one and "the same low degree of civilisation,
contrived these hunting weapons f instinctively, and
in consequence of a sort of natural necessity. We are
urged to this supposition, as we find even very com-
plicated fishing and hunting implements of exactly

• The resemblance is even greater than is here shown on the
Plate.

f If any one objects that the difference of the implements as to
materials (see page 78) proves that they were made at will, and
refutes the theory of instinct, I will only remind the reader that
although the beaver builds its houses, and the birds their nests, by
instinct, every zoologist knows that they are modified, more or less,
even in one and the same species, according to access to different
materials and local circumstances.

Ch. II.] HUMAN AND BRUTE INSTINCT. 106

the same kind with all savage people from pole to
pole. Thus, for instance, the bow and arrow, though
a very ingenious contrivance, is found amongst almost
a//, even the rudest savages; and, as already shown,
very different races of men have instruments which
are, not only similar, but even, so to say, identical. I
have in another place enlarged on this subject.* I
see here the evidence of a higher Wisdom, which has
distributed to man natural weapons, with, however,
the power of discarding them as he improved in civili-
sation. The lion received from nature his sharp
claws, the bear his muscular arms, and the wolf his
powerful teeth ; but they received them as parts of,
and inseparable from, the individual. They cannot be
improved.f Every lion is still, with regard to disposi-
tion and action, exactly such as lions were thousands
of years ago. Man alone can make progress ; he alone
can throw aside hi« first rude weapons and alter them
according to his improved cultivation and more refined
activity. I may here add, that man, in order that he
might become the most powerful, was made at firet
the weakest. Through that alone he was induced to
develope his higher talents ; for it was not by bodily
strength, but by the power of the mind that he was
to be the king and lord of the earth.

• Public discourse at the meeting of the Scandinavian Naturalists
at Stockholm, 1842.
t See Note 5.

100 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. HI.

CHAPTER III.

A COMPAEISOK BETWEEN THE ANCIENT CBANIA FOUND
IN SCANDINAVIA AND THOSE BELONGING TO THE BACES
NOW LIVING THEBE.

With the stone implements, which were described in
the first Chapter, there are not unfrequently found in
our ancient tumuli, skeletons of the people who used
these ancient weapons in life, and were buried with
them after death. In our oldest peat-bogs we like-
wise occasionally discover ancient crania associated
with implements of stone.

I have in another place expressed an opinion that
it would be easy to decide to what particular race
and tribe those people belonged who in Sweden
employed implements of stone and of bones of ani-
mals, etc., if we would only carefully examine the
skeletons, and more especially the crania, found be-
side the implements in ancient sepulchres.

1 now propose to undertake such an investigation,
in as far as it is feasible with the assistance of the
materials which I have at my command. I propose
to compare the fossil crania with those of the races
now living amongst us.

But before proceeding to my task, I ought to pre-
mise that this subject (craniology), so highly im-

Ch. m.) COMPARISON OF CRANIA. 107

portant to ethnography, was in a very unsatisfactory
condition until our illustrious countryman, Professor
Anders Retzius, published his system of classification
of human skulls. He first enunciated this system in
his remarkable discourse at the Meeting of Naturalists
at Stockholm in 1842, * On the Form of the Crania of
the Inhabitants of the North,'* when the races of man
were for the first time classified, according to the
shape of the skull, into gentes dolichocephalce (long-
headed) and brachycephalce (short-headed), and each
of these again were subdivided into orthognathy and
prognathce. Since then the learned professor has com-
pleted his system, with indefatigable diligence and
sagacity, by unceasingly working upon the foundation
which he then laid down, so that craniology has at
last grown into a science resting upon a firm and
solid foundation-! Before the publication of this sys-
tem, which made an epoch in the craniological depart-
ment of ethnology, it was generally supposed that the
Laplanders and the Esquimaux, for instance, be-
longed to one and the same race.J Professor Retzius
has proved tliat they belong to entirely difierent

* Report of the Third Meeting of the Scandinavian Naturalists at
Stockholm, 1842, page 157.

f After the lamented death of Professor Anders Retzius, his son,
Dr. Gustaf Retzius, collected his father^s lectures on this subject, and
published them in the German language, in a very well illustrated
edition, under the title of Ethnographische Schriften von Anders
Retzius, nach dem Tode des Verfassers gesammelt, Stockholm, 1864.
Filial love has thus raised an imperishable monument to an illustrious
father.

% Cuvier also adopted this view in Le Régne Animal. Paris,
1829. Vol. i. page 84.

108 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. HI.

races : that the Laplanders are brachycephalce ortho-
gnathce ; and the Esquimaux, on the other hand, doli-
chocephalce prognathce.

The two most essentially heterogeneous races, now
inhabiting the Scandinavian peninsula, belong to the
gentes orthognathce ; but one, the Laplanders, are,
as already mentioned, brachycephalic^ while all the
others are dolichocephalic- These, latter being com-
paratively the most numerous, we shall begin by
examining them.

I consider the sketches given here of a cranium
of a Swede (PL XII. figs. 227-229) to represent the
true type of the so-called Germano-Gothic race, now
the most general in Sweden, and the more so as Pro-
fessor A. Retzius himself has acknowledged it to be
such in his paper at page 166 (page 6 of the German
translation). The sketch given by Professor Retzius
in * Ethnologische Schriften' (PL I. fig. 1) also agrees
with this. In my first edition, 1838, 1 have described
in the following manner the same cranium, of which I
here reproduce the figure on a somewhat reduced scale.

Seen from above (fig. 228), the skull presents an
oval, or rather, an elongated oval figure, a little
broader at the back than in front, but rounded in
both pai'ts. The greatest length, measured from the
most prominent part of the forehead to the most
prominent part of the occiput, is, in proportion to the
greatest breadth, measured across the crown of tlie
head, as 4 to 3, or as 9 to 7 ; the line of contour at
the sides of the frontal bone is directed forward, not
obliquely inwards. The coronal suture, formed by

Ch. III.] TYPICAL SWEDISH CRANIUM. 100

the frontal and parietal bones, divides the cranium
into two parts, of which the one situated behind the
suture is much longer than that in front of it.

Seen sideways (fig. 227), the upper contour of the
head forms an evenly curved arch, descending in front
at the forehead almost perpendicularly, and a little
more sloping behind the vertex, with a slight depres-
sion over the projecting occiput. If a line be drawn
parallel with the upper edge of the jugal arch, the
highest part of the arch formed by the contour of the
vertex will generally be at, or in front of, tlie coronal
suture. The height from the external auditory aper-
ture to the crown is equal to two-thirds of the dis-
tance from the arch of the eye-brows (arcus supra-
ciliares) to the most projecting part of the occiput.

Seen in front (fig. 229), the forehead is high and
roundly arched, the jugal arches passing obliquely
backward : the face appears to have been rather oval
than round, which fonn is chiefly the effect of the
high forehead and the more elongated upper jaw-
bones.

More or less projecting brow-ridges ; a more or less
deep depression beneath them, above the root of the
nose ; a longer or shorter, a straight or more aquiline
nose, with a more or less projecting bridge, and a
larger or smaller nasal aperture, etc., are only in-
dividual and casual varieties. The same is the case
with the greater or less unevenness of the facial bones
in those places where the muscles have their attach-
ments; the former indicates strong, and the latter
weak facial muscles, and in this respect we meet with

no THE STONE AGE. [Ch. III.

great individual varieties in the existing race to
which we ourselves belong.

As I think that the method adopted by Professor
Ketzius in describing human crania is undoubtedly
the right one, and as, moreover, it is the one now
most generally followed, I shall here give an extract
from his description of a cranium, such as I have
described above. He says : * —

' The shape of the skull, seen from above, is oval ;
the greatest length is in proportion to the greatest
breadth as 1,000 to 773, or nearly as 9 to 7. On
an average, the greatest length from the glabella to
the most projecting part of the tuber occipitale is
0*190 m.; the breadth in front (between the anterior
part of the temporal fossa?) 0*107 m. ; the greatest
breadth posteriorly (immediately behind the temples),
0*147 m. ; the greatest circumference of the skull over
the glabella and the tuber occipitale, 0*540 m.; the
height of the cranium, from the anterior edge of the
foramen magnum to the highest part of the crown,
0135 m.

' The contour of most skulls is somewhat straight in
the front part of the forehead ; the superciliary ridges
are in general strongly developed, and the skull
behind its line of greatest breadth becomes narrower
towards the occiput, and is produced into a strongly
projecting, rounded prominence.

' The greatest breadth of the cranium falls most
frequently below, and a little in front of the parietal

• Report of the Meeting of the Naturaliste at Stockholm, 1842,
page 162.

Ch. III.] TYPICAL SWEDISH CRANIUM. Ill

eminences which lie in front of the commencement of
the occiput and more at the side of the skull ; these
eminences are, however, often wanting, or they are
rounded oiF and project but slightly.

* The hinder part of the parietal bones and the
sagittal suture between them slope backwards. The
upper angle of the occipital bone is situated low
down ; the lambdoidal suture is visible on the lateral
surfaces of the cranium. The margins of the attach-
ments of the cervical muscles (linéae seniicirculares
majores) meet together at nearly a right angle, lying
below and in front of the very projecting occipital
spine, which generally projects, forming in adult males
a considerable eminence.

' When the skull is viewed sideways, the occipital
protuberance also appears very large, as a prominence
bounded superiorly by an indentation above the angle
of the lambdoidal suture, or at the spot where the
large fontanelle was situated, which constitutes an
essential characteristic of crania of this type.

* In consequence of this considerable elongation of
the occiput, the outer auditory opening comes to lie
farther forward than in the skulls with short occiputs.
If, for example, one imagines a plane, passing through
the two outer auditory openings, intersecting the
cranium at right angles, this plane will intersect
the longitudinal diameter very near its middle; fre-
quently it intersects it exactly in the middle, more
rarely in front, but occasionally a few millimeters
behind the middle. Another consequence of the
lengthened occiput is, that the temporal lines do not

112 THE STONE AGE. TCh. 111.

extend 8o far back as in the skulls \nth bhort occi-
puts, but are situated, like the inferior and posterior
angle of the parietal bone, entirely upon the side of
the cranium and do not encroach at all upon the
occipital aspect. It should be remarked that these
lines diverge posteriorly from the borders of the
attachments of the temporal muscles, which pass
nearer the squamous suture of the skull directly
across to the zygomatic process.

* Seen from underneath also, the Swedish crania
are characterised by an elongation of the occiput,
which causes the outline to be elliptic. In order to
define this elongation, we may imagine a straight
line drawn through both the outer auditory orifices.
If on this line, as a chord, an arc be drawn round
the most convex part of the occiput, the height of
the arc will be nearly equal to the chord. It is to
be observed that the line referred to will intersect the
anterior border of the foramen magnum, and that the
arc at first coincides with the borders of the mastoid
processes. The distance between these points, there-
fore, easily defines the length of the chord, whilst
the distance between the front edge of the occipital
foramen and the most projecting part of the occiput
represents the height of the arc. The surface to
which the cervical muscles are attached, and which
is bounded by the superior curved lines, falls entirely
within this segment. This surface, corresponding to
the cerebellar fossae, in which the cerebellum rests, is
in the Swedes nearly horizontal, and does nöt ascend
on the hinder part of the head, but lies in the base

Ch. IU.] typical SWEDISH CRANIUM. 113

of the cranium, and is very slightly convex. The
occipital protuberance corresponding to the cerebral
fossse, in which are lodged the posterior lobes of the
brain, projects considerably behind the cerebellar por-
tion. The shape of the occipital foramen is oval ; its
average length is 0036 m., and breadth 0*029 m. : in
some crania it is pointed, both towards the front and
towards the back ; in others either only towards the
front, or only towards the back. The mastoid pro-
cesses are in most cases large and strono^, and are
divided on the iimer ride lengi^se by a dSp narrow
digastric fossa. The pterygoid processes are almost
perpendicular.

' If we now direct our attention to the framework
of the bones of the face, we shall find that, looked at
from above, it projects very little beyond the circum-
ference of the brain-case; thus the external angular
processes of the frontal bone are small, and the lower
orbital edge nearly vertically below the upper one.
The malar prominences (the tubera zygomatica) lie
immediately below the external angular processes.
This formation is consequent upon the slight prolon-
gation or prominence of the jaws. The jugal arches in
some individuals pass backwards almost in a straight
line, and widen only near the insertion at the temporal
bones ; in others they form nearly a regular arch, the
longest convexity of which is in the middle. The dis-
tance between the greatest convexity of the zygomatic
arches is generally from 0*130 to 0*135 m. The
zygomatic bone is flattened externally, occasionally
rounded and large, and has a malar prominence pro-

114 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. III.

jecting perpendicularly, whereby the whole of the
lower edge of the zygomatic arch becomes strongly
S-shaped, and an indentation arises frequently below
the adjoining malar process of the superior miillary.

* The circumference of the orbits varies in shape ;
in some people it forms a rhomb inclining obliquely
outwards and downwards, with rounded angles ; in
others a parallelogram, also with rounded angles:
sometimes this circumference is oval, sometimes
nearly circular ; but generally it inclines obliquely
outwards, so that the comer of the malar bone is, as
it were, drawn downwards.

* The distance between the orbits, which is occupied
by the root of the nose and the ethmoid, is in general
broad, as in the other northern races.

*The palate is generally highly arched; but in
many instances it is also seen flattened in front.

* The alveolar process (processus alveolaris) of the
upper jaw is high ; the distance from the spina na^alis
externa to the alveolar edge varies from 0*020 to
0*025 m. A line drawn and produced backwards in
the direction of the lower edge of the alveolar process,
falls a little below the point of the mastoid process,
and on the centre of the ascending branch of the
lower jaw. The face becomes, for the same reason,
long. The average length in men, from the junction
of the bones of the nose with the frontal bone to the
alveolar edge of the front teeth, is 0*077 m. The canine
fossa is, in the majority of skulls, tolerably deep.'

With the exception of the Laplanders, who belong
to the short-headed people (gentes brachycephalce)^

Ch. m.] SWEDES AND GOTHS. 116

all the inhabitants of Scandinavia have, from time
immemorial until the present day, belonged to the
class doHchocepkalce. These have, ever since pagan
times, chiefly consisted of Swedes ( Svear) and Goths
(Göter), of which the latter are by far the oldest
inhabitants of the country, and their arrival here
dat^s far anterior to the commencement of history,
when they were spread over the southern and western
districts of the country. The Swedish colonists have
immigrated at a much later period, and were at first
settled in the country surrounding the Malar Lake,
whence they have gradually spread themselves over
the rest of the country.

In dialect, as well as in idiosyncrasy, the difi^erence
between the two is still very noticeable ; but I must
confess that, with respect to the shape of the skulls,
they do not appear to me to offfer any distinct features
by which they can be certainly distinguished fi*om
one another. We find also in Gotha (Göta rike), in
difierent districts, a marked dissimilarity in dialect
and features ; for instance, in the neighbourhood of
Cimbrishamn, in Scania, in certain districts of Små-
land, and elsewhere ; all which seems to me to imply,
that in ancient times settlers arrived from different
parts and fixed their habitations in various places.
Whether, by assiduously studying the peculiar expres-
sions and words in the dialect of each, we shall be
able to throw any light upon this subject, time must
prove. I have in another place* endeavoured to show

* Bronzaldem, by S. Nilsson.

I 2

110 THE STONE AGK [Ch. 111.

that colonies of Semitic people, employing implementö
and weapons of bronze, have settled in various places
in the southern and western parts of the country ;
but their crania do not belong to the period now in
question.

I cannot omit mentioning here a skull of widelj'
different shape, especially on account of the place
where it was found.

At the meeting of the Scandinavian Naturalists in
Christiania, in 1844 (see 'Reports,' 1847, page 101),
I referred to some human skeletons which were dis-
covered in the shell-beds, in the province of Bohusland.
They were situated high above the level of the sea ;
their position, and the undisturbed layers of shells
resting upon them, seem to prove that they were
not buried there, but that they accidentally perished
at the time when these shell-beds were still the
bottom of the sea. In the year 1843, two human
skeletons were found in a shell-bed at Stångenäs, in
the parish of Bro. They were discovered lying about
three feet below the surface of the bed, and the shells
in the bed as well as those above the skeletons were
found in horizontal layers in a perfectly undisturbed
state. The skulls of the skeletons were lying about
two feet distant from each other, but the skeletons
themselves were lying in different directions ; the legs
of one were spread out, the other one was lying
straight. Everything seems to indicate that they had
perished by some accident, and that part of the beds
had afterwards been formed over them. This bed
is now at least 100 feet above the level of the sea.

E^P^fl^^^lP

Ch. III.] SKELETONS FOUND IN SHELL-BEDS. 117

Only the two crania were preserved, and they were
in a fragmentary condition; they are now in the
Museum at Lund. I have here (PL XV. figs. 253,
254, 255) sketched the larger. But it is not ascer-
tained whether it belongs to the Stone Period. It is
unusually large, and appears to me to resemble most
nearly, though not perfectly, a plaster cast of a cra-
nium sent by Sir W. R. Wilde, of Dublin, to Profes-
sor Retzius, and said to have belonged to O'Connor,
who is called the last King of Ireland, and of whose
skull a plaster cast is preserved both in the Museum
of the Caroline Institute at Stockholm, and in the
Zoological Museum at Lund. This cmnium is ob-
long, and almost of equal breadth and length, with
both sides convex and even, above the temporal fossa,
so that the outlines of the sides form uninterruptedly
a rather arched line. In other crania a depression
above the temporal fossae, more or less perceptible,
will be observed ; the upper outline is slightly
convex; the forehead low. The same form of cra-
nium is occasionally met with even in persons now
living.

Another cranium which was found many years
since in a niche of one of the catacombs at Malta, and
is now preserved in the Zoological Museum at Lund,
has a strong resemblance to this form. It was much
decayed, and fell altogether to pieces while being
transported, but it has been skilfully restored.

I have, for the sake of comparison, given a pho-
tograph of it on PI. XVL figs. 271-273, and will
now briefly describe this cranium, notwithstanding

118

THE STONE AGE.

[Ch. III.

that it does not belong to the Stone Age. The fore-
head is high and prominent, sloping above and
between the eye-brows, which protrude but little, and
there is only a slight indentation at the root of the
nose. The upper outline is rather straight across the
crown of the head, more arched in fmnt, with a
small concavity above the eye-brows (glabella), but
sloping backwards still more towards the protube-
I'ance of the occiput ; the pa7*8 basilaris of the occi-
pital bone almost horizontal. The teeth in the upper
jaw appear rather protruding.

Another form of cranium, which undoubtedly be-
longs to the stone age in Scandinavia, is that which
occurs in the gallery-graves in West Gothland, and
of which I have given sketches on PL XIII. figs. 236,
237, 238.

Some of those found in 1863, while searching a
gallery-grave near Lock-Gården, in the parish of
Luttra, Professor Baron G. von DUben has measured
and described in the following manner :—

Length .
Height .
Breadth across forehead

yf jf crown

Zygomatic arch
Circumference .
Height of face .

„ jaw .

19*00 centimeters
14-20

9-70
18-80
12-70
52-60

6-90

3-20

With regard to the shape. Baron von Diiben says,
in the ' Antiquarisk Tidskrift för Sverige,' vol. i. p, 279 :
* The crania are, with one exception, dolichocephalic.

Ch. III.] SKULLS FOUND IN WEST GOTHLAND. 110

In the present Swedish race, the length in propor-
tion to the breadth is as 1000-00 to 771-87. In
twelve of those exhumed in these tumuli, and in
which the proportions could be measured with great
accuracy, the length in proportion to the breadth was
as 1000-00 to 731-45. Most of them also were rela-
tively narrow across the forehead, but they presented
in other respects the usual curvature and breadth
across the parietal protuberances, zygomatic arches,
&c., and projecting occiput of the Swedish cranium.
But by the size of the superciliary ridges and the
proportions of the face, they are easily distinguished
from the existing race. The superciliary arches pro-
ject enormously in most of them, and are high and
thick. In several of them the face is nearly pro-
gnathous ; the alveolar edge of the upper jaw projects
strongly. If we can in any way judge of the shape
of the nose by the bones, it must have been a very
prominent one. The vertical diameter of the orbits
was smaller than in the crania of the existing race ;
the horizontal diameter of the usual size. The palatal
arch is very high. The teeth, in which caries occurs
rather frequently, were for the most part so much
worn at the crown, that the edges had become sharp
and cutting; the masticating surfaces sloping in-
wards.'

I have quoted from Baron Diiben this accurate
and minute description of the skulls found in the
gallery-graves in West Gothland, in order that we
may be able in future to discover by comparison
whether the gallery-graves found in other parts of

120 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. III.

Western Europe, in Asia, and in Africa, have also
been constructed by the same ancient race which
constructed those found in the south and west of
Sweden.

We now come to the second essential shape of cra-
nium, viz., the brachycephalous. It belongs to the
European polar race, which we call Laplanders, and
to many other races in various parts of the world.

A skull of a Laplander, from Stensele parish, is
figured on PI. XIL figs. 233, 234, and on PI. XIIL
fig. 235. If we compare these figures with figs.
227-229, we see at once how much they difixir from
one another. Seen from above, the head of the Lap-
lander presents a much shorter and broader oval
shape, which, therefore, much more approaches to
the spherical form. This form is not only broader
at the back, but also much more square and less
protuberant. The greatest length, from the most
projecting part of the forehead to the most prominent
part of the occiput, is, in proportion to the greatest
breadth across the vertex, about as 8 to 7, and to the
breadth across the zygomatic arch about as 5 to 4.
The contour lines at the sides of the frontal bone
slope obliquely inwards. The coronal suture divides
the calvaria into two parts, of which the hinder is
much broader, but not longer than the one in front.

Seen sideways (fig. 233), the upper contour of the
head forms an arch rather sloping in front and de-
scending rather perpendicularly at the back, therefore
just the reverse of what is the case in the cranium of
the Goth. If a line be drawn parallel with the upper

Ch. m.] SKULL OF THE LAPLANDER. 121

edge of the jugal arch, the highest part of the curve
above it will be found to lie behind the coronal
suture, or nearly in the centre between it and the
lambdoidal. The height from the external auditory
orifice to the summit of the crown is more than three-
fourths of the entire length of the head.

Seen in iront (fig. 235), the forehead is rather flat,
low, and sloping backwards; the jaw-bones some-
what prominent. . The face appears to have been much
shorter, in comparison with its breadth, than in the
Goths, and this chiefly proceeds from the low fore-
head, the protuberant cheek-bones, and the short
upper jaw-bones.

Sometimes, but very rarely, a cranium of this kind
has been found in Stone Age tumuli amongst the cra-
nia of dolichocephalous shape, which is the common
type in such tombs ; the one which I have sketched
here (PI. XII. figs. 230-232) of this description was
found many years ago in a gallery-grave on Möen. It
resembles very much that of a Laplander. ( Compare
figs. 233, 234, and 235.)

The skull figured on PI. XIII. fig. 239 is that of
a Lapland woman from Lyksele, preserved in the
Museum at Lund ; the one given on the same Plate,
fig. 240, is copied from a plaster cast, the original of
which was found in a gallery-chamber at Möen, and
described by Professor Eschricht in * Dansk Folkblad,*
Sept. 15, 1837, page 111.

Some isolated brachycephalous crania have there-
fore been occasionally found in our stone sepulchres ;
but it may be taken for granted that the people who

122 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IU.

constructed these sepulchres belonged to one of the
dolichocephalous races which still inhabit the greater
part of the country. We may, however, infer that the
Laplanders have been more disseminated in former
times than now, partly from the fact that we occasion-
ally find crania in our bogs which appear to have
belonged to that race, and partly from sundry local
names, said to be of Lapland origin, of which we shall
treat further in another chapter. There is still much
wanting to complete our investigations concerning the
skulls of all the dififerent races which have inhabited
the Scandinavian peninsula; but we trust that this
department of ethnological science may also reach its
full development, since a desire to open and examine
scientifically our numerous sepulchral monuments of
different kinds has been more generally awakened.
We will, in conclusion, here give a synoptical table of
the dimensions of the various crania to which we
have referred.

Cn. m.]

SYNOPTICAL VIEW OF CRANIA.

123

»mm

•5

3
1

o fH o

***< Oa <N

1-H

i-H i-H

•^

O O O

iO o CO

I-H

i-C

I-H I-H fH

I-H

t^ 00 (N

'^ 1-1 <N

I-H

(?<

1-1

i-H fH 1-H

I-H

«o t* b»

O 'f^ 1-H

I-H I-H i-H ' '

CD
»O

O 00 00

o »o f-H
C^ I-H 1-H

I I

00 CO oä G^ o »-i

o »C

I I i I I I II

00 00 CO
CO Od <M

»o CO t^ "^ G<1 0> O

00 "^ O» 00 O I-H T|<

»o

1 U I I I J I

g6ooo6<mcsi -^ ^c^

00 '^ Oi -^ 1-H W T*4 '«!t<

g TS

M§i

I v? ^ S

If-s

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u ^ 9

124 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

CHAPTER IV.

BEPULGHBAL ICONUMENTS BELONGING TO THE BTONE AGE
— COMPABIRON BETWEEN THESE AND THE DWELLING-
HOUSES OF THE ESQUIMAUX.

We know scarcely more of the tombs of the primitive
inhabitants of Sweden than of their dwellings. It
is probable that they wandered about scattered in the
woods, mthout any fixed dwellings or burial-places.
The sepulchres which we shall here describe were
erected of large stones, collected together by main
force. They are of two kinds, which in diflferent lan-
guages have different names. The one kind we call
passage-graves, or gallery-graves (gäng-grifier) ; the
other dösar (dolmens). We shall first describe the
former. Every such tomb has evidently been erected
for a whole horde, or for the family of their chief, and
was intended to last a long time. These sepulchral
monuments do not therefore betray the first stage of a
savage state, and we observe that the people who built
them had already established a certain social order,
although they belonged to the proper Stone period,
which preceded all use of metals. They had probably
their dwellings in the vicinity of their burial-places.
But as regards this distant period, when stone imple-
ments only were as yet used in Scandinavia, we cannot
with certainty find any traces of dwelling-houses, inas-

Ch. IV.] PRIMEVAL BURIALr-HOUSES. 125

much as these were built more or less below ground,
and probably of small stones, or of earth and wood,
and would therefore, by the influence of time, have
been reduced long ago to dust.

But if we do not meet with houses for the living,
we do meet with sepulchral chambers, in which the
corpses of the dead were successively deposited; and
these having, as above mentioned, evidently been
burial-places for whole families and generations, it is
more than probable that they were built after the
same model as the common family-huts, although of
more solid materials, and far greater durability.

These primeval burial-houses, in which we find
stone implements, and skeletons with crania like
those already described, and sketched on PI. XIII.
figs. 236-238, and on PI. XIV. figs. 243, 244, 245,
249, and 250, present a peculiar style of architecture,
which cannot be confounded with that of any ex-
isting European nation. Nevertheless it is far from
being incidental or only of occasional occurrence.
On the contrary, a whole class of ancient tumuli are
of this form, and in them are found, as above stated,
implements and weapons of stone only, never of
metal. They have special denominations, and are
called in North Germany, Hunenbetten ; in Denmark,
Jettestuer ; and with us, Gång-yrifter. And with re-
spect to the people who constructed and occupied
them, the skulls found show that with few, perhaps
incidental, exceptions, they belong to the dolicho-
cephalous race.

In order to give at once a diagnosis by which they

126 THE STONE AGR [Ch. IV.

may easily be distinguished from others, I will observe
that they have the following appearance and con-
struction.

They form, generally, an oblong square (sometimes
a circle), with flat roof and a long narrow gallery,
pointing either to the south or to the east, which, in
the square ones, proceeds from the centre of one of
the longest sides, and is lower than the sepulchral
chamber itself.

These tumuli vary in size, but they are all con-
structed to contain a number of corpses, occasionally
up to twenty or more, of diflFerent ages and of both
sexes, according as the individuals of the family or
horde by degrees expired.

One of the tumuli of this kind which has been most
completely described and most skilfiiUy sketched, is
that which was opened in 1805 on the plain of
Axevalla, in West Gothland (Gotheb. Wett. o. Witt.
Sam. Hand., 1^06, page 82, with Plate; Id., 1808,
page 87, with Plate, and also the annexed PL XIV.
figs. 243-5). Two tumuli of an exactly similar form
as the one now mentioned were opened by Mr. Hage,
in 1836, near Stege, on the island of Möen, and these
I had an opportunity of examining while on a journey
there the same year.

The walls of such tombs always consist of large,
erect, and, at least on the inner side, flat slabs of
granite, joined together as closely as possible; the
crevices between them are carefully filled up with
fragments of stone, to prevent animals of prey from

Ch. IV.] PRIMEVAL BURIAL-HOUSES. 127

penetrating, and attacking the corpses ; the wall inside
is tolerably smooth, although we have never observed
that the stones were hewn or ground.* The floor of
the chamber is sometimes paved with flat stones,
sometimes covered only with sand, and the roof con-
sists of massive oblong and broad granite-stones,
which lie with the flat side downwards across the
tomb (fig. 245), the height of which, from floor to
ceiling, is from 5 to nearly 6 feet. In the centre of
one of the long side walls is an opening from which
proceeds towards the east or south (i, e. towards the
sunny side, and never in any other direction) a long
narrow gallery of upright granite-stones, but lower
than those which form the walls of the chamber. This
gallery is also covered with smaller granite-slabs, and
is commonly 16 to 20 feet long, 2^ to 3 feet wide,
and 3 feet high, having the farther end closed up with
a flat stone, by way of door. We find here a remark-
able resemblance to the grotto at Aurignac (Haute-
Garonne), discovered by Lartetf In this grotto the
corpses had also been buried one by one, together
with their weapons or ornaments and whatever else

* The coarse wall-stones, of which these tombs are constructed,
are never hewn. If they were split bj the hand of man, which
seems to have been the case occasionally, it must have been done
by placing on the rock burning piles of wood to heat it, and then
suddenly cooling it by pouring cold water on it, when it would split.
Some of the inhabitants of our forest districts still have recourse to
this mode of splitting rocks.

f See Lyell, Antiquity of Man, page 182. Lubbock, Prehistoric
Times, page 262.

128 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. IV.

was considered to be of use for the life which they
were thought to continue- after death. The chamber
itself is usually 24 to 32 feet long and from 7 to 9
feet broad, the breadth generally being about one-
fourth of the length.

In these burial-vaults the corpses are placed along
the sides of the walls in a sitting or lying position ; they
are less frequently placed in the centre of the cham-
ber. The corpses, often very numerous, being those of
men, women, and children, have evidently been buried
at different times, and probably during a long series
of years. The vault was consequently finished and
covered over before any burials took place therein ;
and the corpses were carried into the tomb through
the entrance-door, and this was again closed after
each funeral.

The chamber appears to have been frequently
divided round the walls into cells or stalls, and in
each stall a corpse was dejDosited. The partitions
between the stalls were sometimes, when circum-
stances permitted, made of flat stone slabs (as in the
tumulus at Axevalla), and where this was the case
the corpses are in such good preservation that they
were found sitting in their original position, with the
legs bent double under the trunk and the fore part
of the arm raised against the chin. For the most
part, however, the walls of the cells were of wood, in
which case, when these became rotten and decayed,
the skeletons fell to the ground. But that the
bodies had originally been sitting in an upright
position, we can see by the bones of each skeleton

Ch. IV.] PRIMEVAL BURIAL-HOUSES. 129

lying crosBwise in a heap, on the top of which the
skull was lying. All the skeletons found in the
above-mentioned tumulus at Stege, on Möen, were in
this position. I Avill not, however, deny that skele-
tons may also have been found buried in an ex-
tended position ; children at least seem to have been
buried in that way. With regard to this, it is also
possible that the same tribe, in different districts and
at different times, may have had a somewhat different
way of burying their dead. With each skeleton we
find generally one or two, sometimes several, stone
implements or wrought pieces of amber ; the former
are found amongst the male, and the latter most
frequently amongst the female skeletons. Amongst
some skeletons which were discovered sitting in a
cell filled with sand, Avere amber beads still lying
round the neck ; these had, therefore, evidently been
worn as ornaments. ('Gotheb. Handl.,' page 93,)

These tumuli are, as far as I know, never bare, but
always covered, both at the top and round the sides,
so that the roof or top-stones are never seen above,
and at the sides scarcely ever the outermost gallery-
stones. I have since seen such quite bare, and of a
gigantic size, on the heath Ekorre wallen, in West
Gothland. But the covering material is different in
different districts ; in the isle of Möen the tombs were
covered with earth forming mould-hills, but in West
Gothland they were mostly covered with larger or
smaller boulders, and have outwardly the appear-
ance of large cairns. (See 'Gotheb. Handl.,' 1806,
page 84; Id. 1808, page 87, and 'Iduna,' Part VIII.

130 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

page 110, PL II. fig. 1.) All cairns or tumuli, how-
ever, do not contain such stone huts as are here de-
scribed. It is impossible to judge from the outer
form of a tumulus, or cairn, what kind of tomb
may be contained therein, or whether such a monu-
ment belongs to the Stone, Bronze, or Iron Age.
It is only by seeing the tomb itself that we can tell
with certainty to which period it belongs ; and if a
side gallery be found, we may be perfectly sure that
no metal will be found in the tomb.

Such half-cross graves, or gallery-tombs, as those
described, are mentioned and sketched in many
works (' Antiquar. Annaler,' vol. iii. PL II.), and fig. 3
on the same Plate, which represents one found in the
isle of Moen (* Antiquar. Annaler,' vol. ii. PL II.).
This latter presents this peculiarity, that the gallery
is a double one, and that there is a partition-wall
in the vault between the two wings.

To this ancient time, and to this same people, be-
longs also the tumulus which was opened in 1819 on
the Åsa-hög, near Quistofta, as described and sketched
in ' Iduna,' Part IX. page 285, PL I. figs. A, B,
by the Rev. Magnus Bruzelius. This ancient sepul-
chre is especially remarkable in two respects. That
it belongs to the same class of ancient monuments
as tliose sketched here, on PL XIV. figs. 243-245, will
at once be seen by the long gallery pointing to the
south (see 'Iduna,' PL I. fig. B), and we are still
more fully convinced thereof by the description, which
informs us that a number of flint implements and
ornaments of amber were found in it, but not a trace
of any metal.

Cn. IV.] PRIMEVAL BURIAL-HOUSES. 131

The sepulchral chamber itself is not, like the former
ones, an oblong square, but round (see sketch in
* Iduna,' and PL XIV. fig. 250). This form is unu-
sual and highly remarkable, as we shall show pre-
sently. The vault seems, besides, to have been divided
by a partition- wall. Another remarkable circumstance
which we notice in the description of this sepul-
chre is that an older series of corpses were interred
therein, without any regard to order or regularity,
forming a layer, which was covered by a bed of sand,
forming a floor, upon which other corpses had in their
turn been deposited. This mode of interring the
dead has also been noticed in the tumuli in West
Gothland. This proves also that the same sepul-
chral chamber had been used as a sepulchre for a
long period.

We occasionally meet with tumuli, especially in
cultivated districts, containing square stone graves
without a side gallery, in which stone implements
have been found; but if we examine them more
closely, we shall see that they are mutilated, and that
they constitute a wing only of the original gallery-
grave ; in such cases we always notice more or less
distinct traces of the destroyed side gallery.

The tumuli here described do not often lie singly,
but there are generally several in the same district,
frequently placed close together. Most of them lie
on high ground, not far from where water was for-
merly or is still found, on the banks of which the
inmates of the tumuli appear to have dwelt. Whether
any of these tumuli were actually dwelling-houses,

K 2

132 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

it is impossible either to prove or to deny. It is
worth noticing, that in one of the stone huts opened
at Stege, on the isle of Möen, no trace of any skele-
tons was found, but instead, a great number of stone
implements, clay vessels, and amber ornaments. This
was also the case with one of the gallery-graves,
which was examined on the Glanslöfs hills.

Fix)m what has hitherto been stated concerning
the ancient tumuli, it appears to me to follow, that
the gallery -graves which were constructed by one of
the ancient nations here, during the Stone Age, are
distinguished from all other ancient monuments by
a narrow side gallery, running south or east, and by
the chamber itself being sometimes an oblong square,
sometimes round. This form, whether of the graves
or of the dwellings for the living, we look for in vain
amongst any of the German nations.*

Neither amongst them, indeed, nor amongst any
people of the so-called Caucasian race, so far as I
know, have any counterparts to these tumuli been
found ; but if we tum to the Esquimaux in Greenland
and in North America, we shall find in their winter
huts a most surprising similarity to our tumuli. We
shall not here enlarge upon this; but so much we
may venture to say without being considered as

♦ * The grave of Harold Här&ger, described by Sturlesson, has
quite a different form and construction.^ (Stm-lesson's Kunga Sagor,
translated by Jacob Aal, vol. i. page 83.) Such tombs, surrounded by
stone columns and with a higher stone at the head and feet, were
still a few years since to be seen in the old churchyard at Dahlby,
near Lund. The same is the case with the grave of Thyre Dancbod
and othera.

ch. iv.j similarity of houses and tombs. ia3

advocating any hypotheses, since there must be, to
every intelligent reader, a great difference between a
similarity founded upon comparison and a hypothesis.
And whether the similarity here alluded to does in
reality exist, the reader can easily determine by a
glance at PI. XIV., wherein fig. 243 represents a
tumulus on Axevalla plain, in West Gothland, and
fig. 246, an Esquimaux winter hut in Greenland.

It is, however, not only the outer contours which
are identical, but also the construction, the dimensions,
and the interior arrangement. In order to show this,
we shall first describe an Esquimaux winter hut in
Greenland, partly according to the information which
Captain Graah gives us in his * Journey,' page 49,* in
which also the sketch of a Greenland hut is given,
which is copied on PL XIV. fig. 246, and partly
to the verbal statements of persons who have long
resided in that country.

The hut forms an oblong square. The size varies
according to the number of families who agree to
inhabit it together. The largest huts are about 60
feet long by 14 to 16 feet in breadth, which therefore
is about one-fourth of its length. The walls are 6 to
8 feet high, constructed of stone, and the crevices
between them filled up with turf.f The floor is

• Undersögelse-Reise till Oathysten af M, A. Graah. Kjöbenh.,
1822. In the sketch I have made the side galler j a little larger than
in Captain Graah*8 sketch, because it is so in reality, both accord-
ing to the verbal account of those who have seen Greenland -winter
huts and according to Captain Graah^s own description thereof.

f There are also dwellings^in Greenland, the walls of which consist
of stones alone.

l;U THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

usually paved with flags. The roof is flat, and con-
structed of drift-timber, stretching across from one
wall to the other. Upon this, smaller timber, or balks,
are piled crosswise, and on the top of these rafters
are thrown sweet-broom and juniper- twigs, then turf
and a thick laver of earth. In the centre of the
longest wall, towards the sunny side, is the passage
or entrance, also covered ; this is from 20 to 30 feet
long, sometimes a little curved, about 2^ to 3 feet
broad, and so low that one must rather crawl than
walk to get in. In most cases, indeed, it is necessary
to crawl on hands and knees. (PL XIV. fig. 251.)
The interior of the hut is loftier, but still not more
than 5 or 6 feet high from floor to ceiling. With regard
to the interior arrangements, it is only along the walls
that the inmates of the house can sit or lie. Benches
are placed there for that purpose, and the room is occa-
sionally partitioned off, along the inside of the wall,
by means of hides, into separate cells, like the stalls
in a stable. Each family occupies one stall, but the
unmarried women have one to themselves.

The reader will please to compare this description
of an Esquimaux winter hut in Greenland with the
description (page 110) of our ancient tombs in the
south of Scandinavia. They are, in fact, identical in
all essentials — the form, proportions, height, size, and
direction of the long narrow side gallery, the division
of the vault into stalls along the walls, etc.

I have previously mentioned that Esquimaux huts
have been found in Greenland, the walls of which
were constructed, like those of our tumuli, altogether

■■

Ch. IV.] ESQUIMAUX WINTER HUT. 135

of stone. In the ' Tidskrift för Nordisk 01dkyndi«[het/
vol. ii. pages 332, 333, there is a very interesting de-
scription of such ancient huts in a mountain district in
Greenland. The walls of these huts were not, as in the
Greenland Esquimaux huts in general, constructed
of stone and turf, but only of stone ; in their form,
however, they resembled the Greenlanders' ordinary
winter dwellings. The stones in most of them were
of moderate size, but in others the walls were con-
structed of large flat stones, partly square, placed
upright, and so accurately fitting one with the other,
that they hardly required smaller stones to fill up the
crevices. In one of the sides there was an opening
leading to a gallery, consisting of a row of stones at
each side of the opening. Having been abandoned
long ago, these huts are now without roof, and open
at the top. The place where they were situated in
considerable numbers, was on three sides surrounded
by a large lake. One cannot but be astonished, when
reading the description of our Scandinavian galleiy-
graves, to find it applicable, almost word for word, to
the Greenland huts. It is not difficult to see the
reason why these Greenland stone huts were not
roofed in with stone, like our tumuli. They were
disposed in groups like ours, and, like them, in the
vicinity of water.*

* It is true that the Greenland guide of the traveller who has
described these huts endeavoured to make him believe that they
were monuments of the colonies of the ancient Norsemen in
Greenland. This is easily accounted for, because, as he was bound
on a vojage for discovering such monuments, his followers probably
expected some reward for every such discovery which they assisted

].% THE STONE AGR [Ch. IV.

But it is not in Greenland only that we meet
with dwellings constructed as here described; we
find them amongst all Esquimaux tribes, wherever
they are domiciled. They are invariably and every-
where characterised by the long, narrow, straight, or
curved covered side gallery, pointing to the south or
east, and by the chamber about 5 feet high. The
latter, however, varies in circumference and building
materials.

The Esquimaux huts, sketched in PL XIV. figs.
247, 248, were found by Scoresby the younger on
Jameson's Land, in lat. 71** N., on the east coast
of Greenland. They were nine or ten in number,
deserted by the inmates, and lay close to each other,
near the declivity of the shore. The roofs had either
fallen in or been removed. What remained of
each hut was an excavation in the ground about
4 feet deep, 15 feet long, and 6 to 9 feet broad.
The side walls consisted of unhewn stones, and the
floor of sand and clay. The entrance, as usual in all
Esquimaux huts, was a horizontal covered gallery,

him to make. They were therefore so zealous, that they tried to make
out even Esquimaux pitfalls for foxes, and natural cavities in rocks,
to be monuments left bj the Norsemen. We might, perhaps, be in-
duced to credit the statement, that the said stone huts with their
long narrow side gallery were of foreign origin, and that they had
served as models for the Greenland winter huts, did we not know
that huts constinicted after this same model are met wäth not only
amongst the Greenlanders in those districts where foreign colonists
have dwelt, but everywhere throughout the whole of Greenland and
North America inhabited by the Esquimaux race. This form of hut
belongs, therefore, originally to this race, as we shall presently show
by ftirther evidence.

Cn. IV.] ESQUIMAUX WINTER HUT. 137

which led from the hut to the south or south-ea$t,
under ground, a distance of about 15 feet, having an
egress to the open air lower down and nearer the
shore. This gallery was so low that an entrance to
the hut could be gained only by crawling on hands
and feet ; the top was covered with flags, and this again
with turf. The roof of such huts is very little elevated
above the ground, and being covered with turf and
overgrown with moss or grass, it so much resembles
the surrounding ground as scarcely to be distinguish-
able therefrom.* Who does not fancy he sees in this
description our gallery-graves hid under an earthen
mound ? What Scoresby mentions afterwards deserves
likewise our attention in the highest degree. He tells
us that two or three huts, to all appearance of older
date than the others, seemed to have been used as
sepulchres, because in them were found graves con-
taining human skeletons. Several graves contained,
besides human bones, fragments of such implements
as are used by the Esquimaux, when fishing or
hunting, and which had been deposited amongst
the corpses, to be employed by the dead in another
world (page 236),

Another proof that the Greenlanders' winter huts
were occasionally used as sepulchres, is afl^orded by
the following circumstance. A credible person, who
had been domiciled a long time in Greenland, has
informed me that there existed, about 1 830, at Kan-
garsak-Tange, two miles from Godhavn, an ancient

* See Tagebuch einer Reise auf den Wallfisch/angy by W.
Scoresby, Jun., page 234, PL VIII. See also Note 6.

138 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

Greenlander's hut, in which were found a number of
corpses provided with implements and omainenls.
They were placed in a sitting posture along the walls,
consequently exactly in the same manner as in the
tumulus on Axevalla plain. Several similar cases
are mentioned by Sir John Lubbock in the ' Annual
Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the Year
1863,' pages 326, 327, in an article reprinted from
the * Natural History Review/ The Baschkiers, for
instance, bury their dead also in a sitting posture.
(See Erman's ^Reise,' vol. i. page 436.)*

We have seen that the sepulchral hut in the

Asahögen, near Quistofta, was quite circular, but
had, as usual, its long narrow gallery towards the
south. It is worth noticing that, in the most
northerly parts of North America, the winter huts
of the Esquimaux are, according to Sir John Ross,
of a similar shape (PI. XIV. fig. 251). They are
there built entirely of frozen snow, with windows of
ice. These have likewise a long gallery, occasionally
curved, leading to the interior of the chamber, which
forms a circle of about 10 feet in diameter, when
intended for only one family, but when for two f it
forms an oval of about 1 5 feet by J 0. These winter
huts are constructed very rapidly; in about half an
hour's time the edifice is completed. When the
Esquimaux, on their travels in dog-sledges, are over-
taken by a snow-storm, which stops their progress,

* See also Lubbock's Prehistoric Times, page 409.
f Captain Sir John Ross, Zweite Entdeckungs-Reise nach den
Gegenden des Nordpols, 1829-1833, vol. i. pages 322-324.

Ch. IV.] SNOW-HUTS. 139

they immediately erect such a snow-hut. The man-
ner of constructing it we learn from Sir John's nar-
rative, page 390. They never forget, even when
building such temporary dwellings of snow, to con-
struct the long gallery. This gallery constitutes,
therefore, an essential part of the Esquimaux dwel-
lings, whether round or square, and whether the
walls are constructed of stones, of turf, or of snow.
The same is the case with our earliest tumuli, in
which stone implements are found; they also have
the long narrow side gallery, whether they are round
or square, large or small.

What, therefore, the Esquimaux huts and the
tumuli have in common with each other is that they
all have flat roofs, that they contain a chamber about
5 feet high, and are provided with a long, covered
side gallery, 2 or 3 feet broad and 3 feet high,
always pointing to the east or south. They resemble
each other also in their form, which varies, being
sometimes round and sometimes an oblong square.
Their interior arrangement also is in the main the
same. In both the centre of the floor is unoccupied,
but the chamber is divided along the walls into cells
or stalls, and in these stalls the inmates — of the
sepulchres as well as of the dwellings — sit in the
same stooping position which all polar people affect.
It seems scarcely possible to assume that all these
various important and minute similarities should be
only accidental. And yet it appears impossible, with
the knowledge which we now possess of the essential
dissimilarity of the tribes, to suppose that there

140 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

should be anything in common, or any connection
between them. There must be some other reason,
for which we cannot as yet account.

We have already seen that the Esquimaux, like the
aborigines of Sweden, place the implements of the
dead beside them in the grave. The missionary
Cranz relates, in his ' History of Greenland,' page 301,
that they place the boat (kajak) of the departed, his
arrows, and every-day utensils beside his grave, 'in
order that he may use them in the next world for
his support.' Even in this circumstance we find a
similarity between them.

This same missionary, Cranz, relates in another
place, that a great many Greenlanders, even in his
time, used to lay the head of a dog beside the grave
of a child, ' in order that the soul of the dog, which
can always find its way home, may show the helpless
child the road to the country of souls.' Whether
this beautiful idea belongs to the Esquimaux or to
the missionary, has not been ascertained ; but it is at
all events certain that the skulls of dogs have been
found in Esquimaux graves also in other places.
Thus Scoresby infonns us, on page 230, that he had
found in Jameson's Land the skull of a dog 'in a
small grave, which probably was that of a child.'

But be this as it may, it is nevertheless a fact, that
there have also occasionally been found in Sweden
a few skulls of dogs amongst human skeletons in our
tumuli. Continued researches will decide whether
these skulls of dogs, when found thus, usually indicate
the skeletons of children.

Cii. IV.] ABORIGINAL HUTS. 141

The result of the researches communicated in this
chapter is this : that the remains of the architecture
of the aborigines which are found in Sweden do not
in the least resemble the architecture of the Gothic,
or of any other known tribe of the German race;
but that, on the contrary, they present an unmistake-
able resemblance to the architecture of the people of
the polar race — the Esquimaux, who have, even to
the present day, retained their ancient manners and
customs.

This applies equally to the custom of our aborigines
of interring their dead, and apparently to other re-
ligious ceremonies in connection therewith ; and yet
these did not belong to the same race of people.
There is not the least sign of Scandinavia having
been inhabited by people of the Esquimaux race.
The similarity must be ascribed to the fact that they
were in the same grade of civilisation and in similar
circumstances.* During the years which have elapsed
since I first discovered and pointed out this resem-
blance between our ancient graves and the houses of
the Esquimaux, I have carefully examined many of
the former, and found my former statement more and
more confirmed. But what I now consider myself
entitled to assume, if I cannot fully prove, is that some
of these gallery-graves are ruins, or actual dwelling-
houses, although most of them have, I admit, been
sepulchres for the dead. It is evident from what I have
quoted on page 116, from Scoresby's Travels and from
verbal narratives, that even amongst the Esquimaux,

♦ Sec Note 7.

142 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

at all events in some districts, the custom of burying
the dead in tombs exactly resembling their dwelling-
houses has prevailed up to recent times. And, in truth,
if we compare dwelling-houses more closely with se-
pulchres, we shall find that they resemble each other
amongst all rude nations ; and if we enquire into the
cause of this curious ethnological fact, we feel con-
vinced that it must be so, and cannot be otherwise.
The rude child of nature has a kind of presenti-
ment, although dim and confused, of a continuation
of life after death. But unable to soar to a purer
and nobler conception thereof, he believes that the
departed are destined to continue after death the
same activity which marked their life in this world.
Therefore he builds the same kind of dwellings for
the dead as for the living ; therefore he places them
in the grave in the same position which they were
wont to take while alive in their hut, and therefore he
hangs upon, or places beside them their implements
of daily use. I shall show farther on that this is in
perfect harmony with the oldest traditional history of
most nations. What I have now adduced may be
enough to prove that if any ruins of dwelling-houses
from the period now in question and the people
belonging to it are found amongst us, they must be,
in respect to form and construction, exactly like the
sepulchres of that period and of that rude tribe. The
truth of this assertion must be obvious to everybody
who is inclined to enquire more closely into the same.
We may therefore rest assured, that before the sa-
vage of the forest plains of Scania and West Gothland

Ch. IV.] ANCIENT DWELLING-HOUSES. 143

began to build gallery-chambera for the dead, he had
already constructed similar ones for the living. Such
ruins of ancient dwelling-houses have indeed already
been observed in Sweden. They are distinguished
from the sepulchral chambers by never containing
any skeletons, and, as far as I have been able to
ascertain, by their having rarely, if ever, any stone
blocks as covering stones ; but they stand open, which
implies that they had the same kind of roof of rafter-
work as the Greenland and North American Esqui-
maux houses, which they completely resemble in size,
form, and construction. I will here describe the ruins
of a couple of such supposed ancient chambers, of
which one lies to the right, close to the turnpike-road
from Skifvarp to Ystad, west of the Bay of Skar, not
far from the shore. It is called Hölingen, lies on a
low eminence, and is in shape rather an oblong square
than an oblong oval, stretching from west to east. It
is constructed of coarse upright granite-stones, placed
with their corners side by side ; of these a few have
tumbled down, but the others are still standing erect.
From the centre of the long south side goes a gallery
in an ESE. direction, consisting of smaller and lower
stones than those of the chamber itself. This was 20
feet long by 8|. The coarse wall-stones were placed
upon a pavement of small stones, in order that they
might not settle down, and were about 5i feet high.
The galler)^ which was 15 feet long, had a breadth at
the opening of 2, and at the entrance of the chamber
of 2^ feet. The stones of the gallery, which were lower
than those of the walls, were not measured. This

144 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. IV.

open hut ruin stood about half, or a little more, above
the surrounding ground. Beneath the greensward,
inside the ruin, the soil was found to consist of a quan-
tity of small stone-splinters, mingled with earth, and
when these had been removed, and the floor, which
consisted of clay mixed with sand, had been reached,
we discovered several fragments of flint-flakes (PL 11.
fig. 24), which no doubt were the most ancient and
rudest knives, and a few pots of burnt clay of vari-
ous shapes, with graven ornaments on the outside.
They were all broken, and of some of them we could
find only one or two fragments — a proof that they
were broken already when the hut was erected ; they
were all empty, and no trace was seen of burnt bone-
splinters, but there were a few amber beads, scarcely
recognisable from decay (see PL IX. figs. 191-195),
and a few pieces of bone, which certainly were not
human. In the northern wing were found charcoal
and ashes — a proof that the fireplace had stood there,
and near these were lying two or three broken clay
vessels : nothing was discovered in the southern mng.
If we now imagine (and it must at any rate be ima-
ginable to everybody) that we have here before us
the ruins of a hut, which two or three thousand
years ago was inhabited by savages, and that it had
been covered in the same way as the Greenland Es-
quimaux huts described at page 134, namely, with a
flat roof, consisting of timber and trees lying cross-
wise on the wall-stones, on which, probably, small
stones, brushwood, heather, juniper, and, lastly, earth
was lying ; then, when the wood- work had decayed

Ca. IV.] miMEVAL DWELLINGS. 145

in the course of time, it would of course fall in and
become dust, so that the ruin would have come to
the exact condition in which we found it. I am of
opinion that the stone fragments which are always
found in great quantities in and about such ruins
were placed in the chinks between the wall-stones, in
order to make the wall air-tight. This is the more
certain as such fragments are always found remaining
in the chinks between the wall-stones of those gallery-
huts which are covered by a heap of earth, and of
which the walls have consequently been protected and
preserved in their original condition.

In the month of May, 1842,-1 examined two gal-
lery-huts which are situated upon an eminence run-
ning past the village of Glumslöf, and called Glumslöf
Hills ; the most northern of these huts is sketched on
PI. XIV. fig. 249. In the same district, in Glumslöf,
Quistofta, Barslöf, and other neighbouring parishes,
ruins of this kind, more or less demolished, are fre-
quently met with ; and, owing to there being still a
good supply of stone, they have not been disturbed.
In other districts, however, where stone is more scarce,
they have been demolished, in order to make use of
the stones for houses, bridges, and field enclosures.

The hut here sketched is nearly oval, 15 to 16 feet in
length and 8 broad, and the wall-stones nearly 5| feet
high from the floor. The gallery, which runs south,
with a slight inclination towards east (ESE.), is about
16 feet long and 2 feet broad. Here also the surface
of the earth inside the chamber, as well as round the
outside, was mingled vnth a great quantity of stone

140 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

fragments. Amongst these, near the surface, a broken
flint spear or spear-point (PL III. fig. 57) was found.
Nearer the floor — which was of sand — or on it, but in
the earth, mingled with stone fragments, were found
other effects of the dead, consisting of several vessels
of clay, all broken, of various shapes, some of which
were very shallow, and widening towards the top, like
small basins. Some were ornamented with graven
figures on the outside, others plain. A great number
of fragments were discovered, and many ornaments
more or less decayed; viz., beads and buttons of am-
ber; a flint knife with a handle, like that on PL III.
fig. 64, and several spears, axes, and flakes, all of flint.
Amongst the amber articles was lying a needle whet-
stone, sketched on PL VIII. fig. 182, and described on
page 81. Here also were found in the chamber ashes
and charcoal, more especially on one spot, where the
fireplace probably had stood.

Here likewise the ruins were uncovered to more
than half their height ; but inside, as well as around
them, the earth was a little raised above the sur-
rounding ground, and was more than usually mixed
with angular stone fragments, which, as it seems to
me, must have served to fill up the chinks in the walls.
I found here likewise a few broken bones, which
certainly were not human. Neither here, nor in any
other half-cross building, have any traces of burnt
human bones ever been discovered.

I repeat here what I stated above, that supposing
these ruins to have been, two or three thousand years
ago, dwelling-houses, provided with roofs of the same

Ch. IV.] PRIMEVAL DWELLINGS. 147

materials and construction as those^ Greenland huts,
which they exactly resemble in shape, they must now,
after the lapse of thousands of years, and since the
decay of the wood-work which fell down into and
round the house, present themselves to us exactly
in the same condition as the ruins which I have here
described.

It appears to me that the objection raised against
my view, that the ruins in question are those of
dwelling-houses and not of sepulchres, has been re-
futed by the fact, that traces of human skeletons have
never been found in them, but always a greater or less
quantity of the household furniture of their former
inmates, and invariably also a place which seems to
have been the fireplace.

Since this has been shown, we ought to observe,
before proceeding farther in our investigations, that
the name half -cross tombs^ by which these monuments
of past ages were formerly designated, is, in more than
one respect, a misnomer, and gives rise to erroneous
ideas ; partly because, as it now appears, they were not
all sepulchres, and partly because the chamber only
forms a half-cross with its gallery when the former is
an oblong square ; whereas this is not the case when
it is round (see PI. VIII. fig. 250). The form of the
chamber is either an oblong square, an oval, or a
circle ; the form is therefore indeterminate ; but what
is never wanting in this kind of ancient dwelling is
the more or less long gallery, consisting of two rows
of stone running east or south. This is the most cha-
racteristic feature of these monuments of antiquity,

L 1

148 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

and one which at the first glance distinguishes them
from all others. In order to get a clear conception of
the subjects of our investigation, we ought to designate
them by their peculiar and essential feature, viz., the
more or less long gallery, and as they all consist of
stones raised on end, and, consequently, were built, we
shall call them

Gallery-Houses.

And these being, as we suppose, of two kinds,
namely, houses for the dead, or tombs^ and houses for
the living, or dwellings^ we shall class them accord-
ingly, and call them (1.) Gallery-huts and (2.) Gal-
lery-tombs. We have already mentioned, that these
ancient buildings vary in shape, and may therefore
be divided into —

1. Round Buildings. — To this class belongs the
gallery-tomb on the Asahögen, near Quistofta (page
112), here represented (PL XIV. fig. 250) in the con-
dition in which it was before some portion of the
side stones had tumbled down, but without the im-
posts, or roof-stones, with which it was formerly pro-
vided.* It derives its name fi*om its site upon an
* ås,' i.e. upon the top of a ridge of hills. Between
this and another chain of hills, on which lies a tu-
mulus, called Stenshögen,! is a watercourse reach-
ing down to the river, wliich formerly was more con-
siderable than now. These gallery-houses with round
chambers are less common, but are nevertheless

* See the periodical Runa^ Plate IIL fig. 9.
f Runa J Plate, fig. 6.

Ch. IV.] GALLERY-HOUSES. 149

occasionally found, in Sweden, as well as in Den-
mark and in other places, even down to France. In
^L'lnstitut, Chronique Scientifique,' for February
24, 1839, it is related that some labourers at Sau-
mur found an ancient tomb, in which human skel-
etons and stone implements were discovered. The
wall-stones forming the tomb in which these anti-
quities were discovered stood in a circle ; upon them
was lying a large block of stone 6 to 7 metres in
length, about the same in breadth and 1 metre in
thickness. In this tomb a large quantity of human
bones were lying in such a manner that thigh and
arm-bones, etc., were all lying crosswise in a heap,
and on the top of it the skull, which shows that here
also the corpses had been interred in a sitting posture.
It is indeed worth observing that here, as in the
Asahögen tumulus (page 113), was discovered, un-
derneath the first layer of bones, another similar one
in which the bones were found in the same position as
the upper ones. Amongst the bones were found flint
axes, flint arrows with very sharp heads and toothed
edges, besides others of a ruder shape, but also of
flint. There were, moreover, found two dirks, the
handles of which consisted of an oblong piece of bone,
in one end of which was fixed the tusk of a wild boar
by way of blade. The whole were buried under a layer
of earth, 50 centimetres in thickness.

This description presents an astonishing resem-
blance to the one given in * Iduna' of the Asahögen.
In this were also found two or more layers of
bones, as was observed in the West Gothland tombs ;

150 THE STONE AGE. [Cii. IV.

the side stones in the tomb were standing upright
in a circle, and above them were lying large top-
stones, or imposts. In the Asa tomb were also
found, besides axes and arrows of flint, etc., a wild
boar's tusk, probably used as a dagger, the handle of
which, having perhaps been of wood, was decayed.
It is not recorded whether at Saumur the chamber
had a gallery of two rows of stones issuing from the
round chamber. Yet such a one must evidently have
existed.

In the periodical ' Das Ausland' for May 1840, page
579, there is also mentioned a very similar sepulchral
hut lately discovered in France. A gallery led to
a large grotto or chamber, consisting of nine stones,
standing upright, on the top of which a flagstone of
26' 3" was resting. The interior was filled with skele-
tons in a sitting posture, with their heads leaning
against the wall; behind and beside them stood ves-
sels containing victuals for the dead. Nuts and acorns,
contained in them, were in perfect preserv^ation.*
There were also found two axes and two knives of
stone; several small sharp implements, the use of
which was not known; two necklaces, one of shell
and the other of burnt clay;f several boar-tusks, the
bones of a dog, and a stone slab upon which traces of
a rude sketch were discernible. We see at once that
this was a gaUery-tomb.

* Nothing similar has ever been found here with us, as far as I
am aware. The savage here probably for the most part subsisted
on meat, as now in higher latitudes.

f We oflen find here similar ones of burnt clay, and especially in
Oland.

^9S^iHBV!(«ir9^^7^!S9HVaH^i«HB^Bia

Ch. IV.] OVAL AND OBLONG GALLERY-HOUSES. 151

2. Oval Chambers. — This shape is more common

than the former, and is that of most of the gallery-
hute which I have had an opportumty of examining
closely. Many of them, however, approximate to the
following. One of these, lying on the Glumslöf Hills,
is sketched in PL VIII. fig. 249.

3. Tlie Oblong Square This is also a very com-
mon shape, both with us and in Denmark.

Houses of this kind, covered with earth, and at
a distance resemblinff tumuli, are still used by the
E^oi^aux in GreJod, ^k were fonnerly found
in far more southerly districts in America than now.
In the * Antiquitates AmericansB,'* we are told,
on page 43, that when the Icelander Thorwald and
his followers arrived in Winland (east coast of the
United States of North America, about 40**-42® lat.
North), they saw some mounds on the shore in a bay,
and they took them to be habitations, which proved
to be the case, because the Icelanders were soon after-
wards attacked by a number of Skralingar — the
name given by them to the Greenland and American
Esquimaux. Our oldest legends tell us that the
houses were of old built after the same model, which
indeed is indicated by our ancient ruins, so that these
houses must have resembled earthen mounds.

From what has been already remarked, it follows
that gallery-houses may be considered either as monu-
ments belonging to ancient times, or as dwellings
still used in various parts of the world, far separated

• Antiquitates AmericancBy sive Scriptores septentrionales rerum
ante-Columbianarum in America, Ha&ice, 1837.

152 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

from each other; in Boothia (the most northern part
of North America), in Greenland, in the ancient
Winland, in Sweden, in Denmark, in the north of
Germany, even down to France; and it is highly
probable that they occurred formerly in various
districts where now no perceptible trace of them is
left.

The remarkable fact that these dwellings and tombs
are so similar in countries so widely separated, and
inhabited by such different races, cannot perhaps be ex-
plained in more than one way : that, namely, in which
we have in Chapter I. endeavoured to account for the
phenomenon that we find everywhere, all over the
earth, implements and weapons of stone so exactly
alike. All savages which inhabit nearly the same cli-
mates,* and stand upon an equally low point of civilisa-
tion, must resemble each other in all outward essen-
tials: they clothe themselves in fur skins, they fish,
they hunt, and finally, their dwellings must be alike,
namely, caves, into which they crawl, like the animals,
through a low narrow entrance. (See PL VIII. fig.
251.) But with regard to the gallery -huts in ques-
tion, it is easy to understand that the first habitations
of man were not of this character.

Let us picture to ourselves a race of savages ar-
riving, fi'om some cause or other, in a climate which,

* Did the same climate prevail in France as in Greenland, at
the period when these buildings were constructed? This ques-
tion seems to be naturally prompted by the figure of the mam-
moth found in Perigord with skeletons of other arctic animals. It
appears to me, however, that the gallery-graves belonged to a period
comparatively much more recent.

Ch. TV.] THE CAVERN-DWELLING. lo3

though milder on the whole, was characterised by
occasional periods of great cold. If even the nights
only were cold and the days hot, still this would
force the inhabitants to seek some shelter. This they
would find in mountain-caverns, which would pro-
tect them against the cold of the night and the heat
of the day.* The mountain-cavern was therefore
man's first dwelling. All the oldest traditions refer
to this fact. The earliest inhabitants of Greece dwelt
in mountain-caverns. People in Siberia, anterior to
the Samoyedes, lived in subterranean caves.f The
Cyclopes of Homer, dwelling on the coast of the
Black Sea, although endowed by the fancy of the poet
with many extravagant attributes, are to sober prose
nothing but nomads, living in moivitain-cavems.t
The country between the Black and the Caspian Sea
has generally, and with every reason, been looked
upon as the region of the world from which a I'ace
of human beings, endowed with great susceptibility
of civilisation, has emanated, and most of the earliest
traditions of existing European nations point to
that region. There man dwelt in mountain-caverns,
and thence the nations were disseminated over far
distant lands, carrying with them their earliest
memories, their native customs and manners. But
a great many remained behind, and their numbers
increased more and more; so much so that the

* The flame idea is expressed bj Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. chap,
viii. : * hieme in speluncas refugere/ &c.
j" Emian'a lieise, page 710.
J Odf/ss.y b. i. v^'. 113-115 ; 182, 399, 400.

154 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. IV.

caverns formed by nature could not shelter them all
any longer ; they then dug out caves for themselves
in the softer rocks; the number of these increased,
and thus by degrees whole villages or towns of
caves* sprang into existence. The nations of the
South and East also buried their dead in the same
kind of habitations in which they themselves had
originally dwelt (see page 119). The Hittites, a
tribe in Canaan in the time of Abraham, buried their
dead in mountain-caves. Abraham bought from
them a double cave, in which to bury his deceased
wife,f and this custom of burying the dead in that
manner was kept up afterwards amongst the Jews
in Jerusalem; hence the crypts, etc., found there.
We may ascribe to the same origin — ^namely, a copy
of the primitive dwellings (the mountain-caves),
and afterwards of the tombs — all catacombs, crypts,
temple-grottoes, etc.

But when the people who dug out and dwelt in
the crypts of the Caucasus were expelled by more
powerfiil hordes, and forced to retreat to countries
where either no moimtains existed, or none of such
soft material that they could dig out habitations
in them, they found themselves compelled to build
such dwellings by means of heaped-up stones or tim-
ber. I imagine that the art of architecture arose out

* We find sketches of these artificial mountain-cayes in the works
of several travellers. I will only mention Dubois de Montpereux^s
Voyage autour du Caucase^ Atlas, sér. iv. PI. I., II., and III. In
Ainsworth^s Voyage whole villages of artificial caves are mentioned.
Compare Dae Aueland, 1842, No. 170.

f Genesis xxiii.

Ch. IV.] THE CAVERN-SEPULCHRE. 166

of this circumstance, and was gradually developed;
it emanated from the mountain-cave man's earliest
dwelling, thence developing itself in two different
ways, as dwellings for the living, and tombs for
the dead : in the former it grew into palaces, in the
latter into temples. We should here observe that
as long as a people continues to dwell in mountain-
caves, it will also bury its dead in such caves ; and
this custom, like aU religious customs (less sub-
ject to change than profane ones), survived long
after people had commenced to inhabit proper houses.
Thus it was with the Jews in Jerusalem, and so with
many other nations. This proves that religion with
them is ancient — almost as ancient as their own
race. But if a nation changes its religion, or re-
ceives it long after having possessed regular dwelling-
houses, it frequently gives to its tombs the shape
and appearance of its dwellings. The tombs of the
Tartars in Kasan resemble exactly, but on a small
scale, their dwelling-houses, and are buUt in the
same manner of balks attached one to the other.* A
Circassian tomb resembles a Circassian house.f The
tombs of the Karaite Jews in the Valley of Jehosh-
aphat resemble houses and churches.J The tombs of
the modem Greeks in the Crimea resemble churches.
But in the hotter zones of the South, the savage
sought out the mountain-cave, not so much for a
shelter against the cold as for a cool retreat from the
heat of the sun.

* Erman's Eeis€y vol. i. page 248.

t Dubois, Atlas, eér. iv. PI. XXX. f. 1. J Ibid. ff. 7, 0.

150 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

On the other hand, if we direct our looks towards
the more frigid zones of the earth, we shall find that
the case is somewhat different. Let us picture to
ourselves savages appearing, for some reason or other,
on the shores of waters in these zones and in those
wild forests, where the soil during the greater part of
the year is covered with ice and snow; we shall find
that their first care is to hunt and to kill -svild animals,
in order to procure from them flesh for food and skins
for clothing, and their next to find protection in deep
mountain-caves from the terrible cold of the winter.
Caves were in this instance not sought out in order to
afford cool retreats in summer, but for peace and pro-
tection against snow-storms, tempests, and bitter cold.
This being the object which the savage had in view,
it naturally follows that he should seek out and pre-
pare for himself mountain-caves with a long gallery
pointing towards the sun;* and where such an
entrance was wanting, it was constructed. We have
ample proofs that such was the case, and that savage
nations, even in the cold and temperate climate of
Europe, lived in mountain-caves. I have already,
f '.r I f. I't in Chapter IV., stated that the Laplanders formerly

lived in such caves. In several of the bone-caves in
Germany and France, filled with bones of now extinct
animals, human remains have been found, together
with axes and implements of the chase, made of flint ;
and the most plausible explanation which has been
given of this circumstance is probably this — ^that those

• Animals have the same instinct See Scandinavian Fauna,
vol. i. page 217.

Ch. IV.] GALLERY-DWELLINGS. 157

mountain-caves, in which the bones of animals occur
in such large numbers (occasionally also of animals
which had served for food) were inhabited by savages,
who died in them, and there left behind their wea-
pons and sometimes their bones. Jordanes had heard
of people in Sweden (Scania) which, like the wild
animals, lived in caves cut out in the rocks.*

But the savage could find such dwellings only where
there were mountains with caves. If he wandered
out of such a district into the plains, and wanted
to fix his habitation there, he was compelled to
collect blocks of stone, and to form with them caves,
resembling as much as possible the mountain-caves.
In this manner the gallery-houses arose, where the
long narrow gallery corresponds with the narrow
entrance to the mountain-cave, and the chamber with
the cave itself. This may, therefore, vary in shape,
but the gallery is never wanting.

By this definition of the gallery-buildings, that they
are with several distinct nations originally an imitation
of the mountain-cavern, I believe we may explain the
remarkable phenomenon, that those of the same shape
are to be met with in countries so widely separated,
and where they were undoubtedly erected and inha-
bited by different nations.

But if this explanation be correct, which I think
we must admit, it follows also that gallery-houses
constructed of stones collected for this purpose can

* Jordanes, de Reh, Gettets , cap. ill. I belieye that I must thus
interpret * Hi (populi) exesis rupibus quasi castellis inhabitant, ritu
belluino.' Jordanes^ accounts of Sweden are, however, very confused.

158 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

never occur in mountainous or rocky districts, where
such caves are formed by nature. And this agrees
exactly with real facts. Here in Sweden they occur
only in the large plains of Scania, West Gothland,
etc. ; nay, even in Scania, where in some parts of the
plains they are very numerous, and where, conse-
quently, a great number of the people who erected
them must have lived, especially on hilly grounds near
or between waters now dried up; they are, on the
other hand, completely wanting in all districts where
there are mountains and rocks, containing caves and
crevices. This is the general view, and, as far as 1
know, without exceptions. It is very remarkable also
that in such mountain districts there are crevices to
which tradition attaches similar stories or legends, as
to certain hillocks on the plains, namely, of giants,
goblins, pigmies, etc., which were said formerly to have
inhabited them. Certain gallery-houses in the plains
are called giants' caves, giants^ tombs^ goblin caves^
pigmies^ hillocks ; and exactly similar names are given
to certain mountain-grottoes in the mountainous dis-
tricts. Thus there is in the single district of Scania a
goblin-cave^ in Bjömekulla Crag, and one with the same
name in Billeshall ; two giant-caves on Skärali, one in
Klöfvahallar and one in Röstånga village, etc. These
exactly similar designations of the mountain-cave and
the gallery-house, handed down to us from former
ages, intimate that according to tradition they were
applied to the same purpose in ancient times. This
appears to me to be a ground for explaining the real
fact, that gallery-houses occur only in plains.

Cfl. IV.] GALLERY^EPULCHRES. 159

I have already expressed my conviction that several
tribes in Scandinavia have employed stone implements ;
that is to say, the earliest savages, who certainly had
no fixed habitations, as well as the later settlers, who
built the gallery-graves; and it appears to me more
than probable that several kinds of stone implements
continued to be used even long after the time when
the people had ceased to build gallery-graves. Such
implements are found scattered everywhere also in
Central and Northern Sweden, sometimes in greater
quantities, and consisting sometimes of large heavy
articles, which could not have been amulets, as was once
supposed. Sometimes also tools are discovered with
which stone implements were manufactured (hammer-
stones, PL I.). The stone implements found in Central
and Northern Sweden are, besides, frequently made
of those species of stone which are indigenous to the
district in which they are found, which clearly proves
that they have not been brought there from other
parts of the country.*

The other kind of sepulchral monument belonging to
the Stone Age also occurs with us. They are called in
Scania dös^ in Denmark dyss^ in England cromlech^ and
in France dolmen. They consist of three to five stones,
raised in the shape of a ring, with a large block on
the top of them. (PL X. fig. 211.) They were erected
in order to contain one corpse, which was always

* This is most easily explained bj assuming that stone implements
were used also by people who had neither gallery-houses nor gallery -
tombs, the more as these are not always to be peen in the districts
where stone implements are to be met with.

160 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. IV.

placed in a sitting posture, and beside it implements
and weapons, which are always of flint. Whether
these dosar and the giants' huts before described were
coeval, and built by the same people, does not appear
to me to be fully proved, although it is probable.
They are to be seen here and there, both in Scania
and West Gothland, in the same districts as the former.
Sometimes we meet with several lying in a row, sur-
rounded by a circle of raised stones.

Whether the so-called dolmens^ which have been
found in Africa, near Constantiue, and are sketched
in the ' Magasin Pittoresque,' 1864, page 80, belong
to this category, or should be counted to the trilithic
class, and consequently, to the Bronze Age, I do not
venture to decide. A glance at the previous page 79
will show a striking resemblance with the construction
of Stonehenge. To this may be added, that in them
have been found objects both of bronze and iron.

It cannot be supposed that the interment of the dead
was the original purpose to which the gallery-tombs
were applied. Some naturalists think that they
were chamel vaults^ in which human bones were
deposited after having been stripped of the flesh in
some way or other. It has been ascertained, for
• instance, that human bones of people of all ages and of
both sexes were deposited in these tombs, and they
remain there in separate layers, in such a number and
so closely packed, without order or arrangement, that
one has been led to suppose that the flesh must have
been by some means removed from them })efore tlicy
were thrown into the grave.

Ch. tv.] GALLERY-TOMBS. 161

As far as I am aware, the Rev. M. Bruzelius was the
first person in this country who (see page 130) made
any observations bearing on this circumstance, while
examining the Asagrafven in Scania, which he de-
scribed in his periodical ^Iduna' for 1822, No. IX.
page 285. Besides stone implements, clay urns,
and a number of amber ornaments, he found therein
a vast quantity of human bones, divided into two
layers by a bed of sand of about six inches in thick-
ness. It was the opinion of the Rev. M. Bruzelius
that the bones had been stripped off the flesh before
being deposited in the vault, from the circumstance
that he found in one place only the bones of the ex-
tremities and no vertebrsB (page 290) ; in another a
quantity of skulls (page 293; compare page 328 and
others) ; and he relates on page 312, that the natives of
Otaheite and Siam have a similar manner of burying
the dead.

The Danish antiquary, Mr. V. Boj'e, who in the
year 1863 examined a gallery- tomb at Hammer, in the
south-east part of the island of Zeeland (Denmark),
has given a detailed description thereof, and, like the
Rev. M. Binizelius, has given us sketches of the articles
of antiquity found therein.* In this gallery-tomb, the

* This treatise of Mr. BoVe's is interesting and instructive, be-
cause it shows that in one and the same gallerj-tomb (PL I.) there
were found not only the rudest pieces of flint, figs. 11-19, but also
some exceedingly well made, and even drilled, stone implements,
on account of which &ct a doubt arises as to the proposed division
of the Stone Age into two series, in proportion as the antiquities
are in a rude state or ground, which has been adopted by several
antiquaries. We see from this and various other facts, that they may
be coeval. (See Note 8.)

162 THE STONE AGE. [Ch, IV.

bones were likewise found lying in several layers,
without any order or arrangement, and as they had
evidently been thrown in after being divested of the
flesh. In explanation of this, Mr. Boye refers to Mr.
Schoolcraft's statement in his * Historical and Statis-
tical Information respecting the History, etc., of the
Indian Tribes,' vol. i. pages 80, 102, that when a
person died, the corpse was rolled up in hides and de-
posited in some high place in a cave, to protect it from
the voracity of wild animals. There it remained until
the flesh, through the influence of atmospheric air, had
fallen off from the bones. When several corpses had in
this manner been changed into skeletons, the bones
were collected at certain times of the year and depo-
sited in large common vaults together with sundry
weapons, implements, and ornaments. Many such
bone-graves (ossuaries) of large size have been disco-
vered there. Mr. BoJ'^e supposes that the gallery- tomb
at Hammer was an ossuary of this character.

In the summer of 18f 3, about the time when
Mr. Boye opened the grave at Hammer, two gallery-
tombs were opened and examined in West Gothland
by Prof. Hildebrand, Baron G. von Diiben, and Mr,
Retzius, M.D., the first of whom has inserted in the
*Antiquarisk Tidskrift för Sverige,' vol. i. page 255,
descriptions of these tombs and of the articles of
antiquity found in them. In page 256 he describes a
gallery-tomb near Luttra. It was filled with closely-
packed black loam, with which a few boulders were
mingled. After removing this layer to the depth of
about 4 feet, a great quantity of human bones were

Ch. IV.] GALLERY-TOMBS. 163

found, packed together indiscriminately in the loam
and between the boulders, part of them, especially the
skulls, more or less crushed and broken. All the
bones were lying in the greatest confusion. Only a
few implements of flint and bone were found. The
greatest number were discovered in the lower part
of the bone-layer and upon the lowest layer of closely
packed mould. The descriptions are given in much
detail, as well of the graves as of the discoveries
made in them; besides which, the work contains
woodcuts of some of the most remarkable articles of
antiquity found in the tombs.

Mr. Hildebrand says, finally, page 271: — 'As a
general result of our researches, I believe I may as-
sume that the two gallery -tombs which we have opened
maybe considered as a kind of ossuaries, rather than as
tombs in the usual acceptation of the word ; because
it is not possible that the bones could have been in so
confused a position, packed between mould and stones,
as here described, if the corpses had been carried into
the grave whole, and deposited therein either in a
straight or in a sitting posture. Besides, in the latter
case we should, on the strength of our experience from
the Axevalla tomb and some other similar gallery-
tombs, have expected to find the grave divided by
slabs or fragments into several smaller compartments,
each enclosing one or more corpses, etc'

I will not dispute the opinion given by several
scientific men, ' that the gallery-tombs were ossuaries ; '
but I must candidly confess that I cannot coincide
with them; and having said thus much, I consider

M 2

164 THE STOKE AGE. [Ch. IV.

myself bound to state my reasons for entertaining a
different view.

None of the authors who consider our gallery-
tombs to have been ossuaries have informed us by
what process the corpses were divested of their flesh
before being thrown into the tomb as skeletons.
Was it done by depositing the corpse in some other
place until the flesh had rotted and fallen off^? But
why should it be so, when they had the large and
costly granite mausoleums, in which the dead might
have been placed? Or perhaps they suppose that the
flesh was cut away from the bones by means of sharp
flint-knives? Those who know how much the igno-
rant classes of the people, even at the present time,
dread laying their hands upon a corpse, and that very
few could be induced, even by a promise of a con-
siderable reward, to cut off^ a hand or a foot from
a dead body, cannot suppose that anybody could be
prevailed upon to cut away the flesh from the bones,
least of all during the Stone Age here in the North,
when the inhabitants were in the hifrhest den:ree rude
and superstitious. We know, besides, that the people
here who built the gallery-tombs had the same cus-
toms as the Greenlanders in pagan times (compare
page 130), and that they placed at the side of the
deceased men the weapons and implements which
they were wont to use while alive, and at the side
of the women their ornaments — all evidently for the
purpose (of which also, as regards Greenland, the
Christian missionaries were aware) that the deceased,
who were supposed to carry on in the tomb the same

Ch. IV.] GALLERY-TOMBS NOT OSSUARIES. 165

occupation as when on earth, might avail themselves
thereof. That the pagans, who built the galleiy-
graves in West Gothland, had the same religious belief,
we may conclude from their depositing the corpses
in the same sitting position as they had in their houses
when alive, and placing beside them their weapons
and ornaments, as, for instance, in the gallery-tomb
on Axevalla plain. And it follows, therefore, that
they had evidently some dim presentiment of immor-
tality. The belief in the i mmortality of the soul

purCptQrJ]^r5ic^^ in the human race

from its very first appearance upon earth ; it is only
since speculation has gained some ascendency over
the still voice of conscience, that doubts have arisen
here and there. But no one who had this religious
belief could have been induced to lay hands upon the
dead, in order to remove the flesh from the bones,
either by means of fire or sharp cutting instruments.
We have seen that some of the corpses in the Axevalla
tombs were ornamented with necklaces. The flesh
had certainly not been removed from them before they
were interred. We must therefore suppose that at
least some corpses were placed intact in the grave.
We might at first suppose, however, that others were
transformed into skeletons before the bones were
laid into the tomb ; but on more mature reflection,
it is easy to see that this could not have been the
case, and that all must have been buried in exactly
the same manner.

For my part, I must assume that all the bones
found in a gallery-tomb were formerly deposited there

106 TIIE STONE AGE. [Ch.IV.

as whole corpses, and we shall see whether this my
conviction is not confirmed by the facts which the
investigation of the West Gothland tombs brings to
liorht. We should here remember that the tomb must
have been in reality completed, and that the roof-
stones must have been in their place, before a corpse
or any bones could be deposited in it ; otherwise foxes
and wolves would have run away with the bones.
How anxious the aborigines were to protect the re-
mains of their dead in the tomb we can see by their
having, as before mentioned, closed up the chinks be-
tween the larger stones with fragments of stone. We
ought likewise to remember that every tomb had its
side gallery, through which the access to the vault
itself was opened whenever the owners chose, and that
it was closed by an end-stone against any attempt of
ravenous animals to penetrate into the grave.

After these observations we shall now enquire what
has been the result of the researches of Baron von
Diiben in the so-called Luttra tomb. On page 279
the Baron says : * When the intervening mould and
larger or smaller stones had been carefully removed,
we saw the broken bones lying in regular order and
arrangement ; for instance, leg-bones, vertebrae, and so
on, and amongst them a skull was Ijnng.' • Here, cer-
tainly, there can be no question of anything but a com-
plete connected skeleton, which, as a corpse, had been
buried in a lying posture on the floor. * Occasionally

* This obKervation could hardly have been made by anybody but
an anatomist. I beg, therefore, to mention that Baron von Duben is
professor of anatomy, and perhaps the first anatomist ex profesao
who has investigated any gallery- tomb in our country.

mm^^mmm^^wmmam

Ch. IV.] THE LUTTRA TOMB. 167

we could see the bones of the trunk and of the ex-
tremities crossing each other in all directions, and
on the top of the heap a skull/ It is evident that
these skeletons were placed in the grave as corpses,
and in a sitting, not a lying posture. The Baron
says, farther on: — 'The mould in which the bones
were embedded was very fat and unctuous, more so
than the mould which was lying farther off.' Every-
body must see, when this is pointed out, that the ' fat
unctuous' mould about the bones was the decayed
flesh which had surrounded the bones, and conse-
quently, that the bones had not been deposited in
the tombs as skeletons, but as whole corpses, pro-
vided with flesh and blood. * But,' says the Baron,
* the bones in most cases adhered so firmly to one
another, that it was impossible to say which belonged
to one and the same individual.'

How are we now to account, on the one hand, for
the large quantity of bones which occur in the
separate layers, and on the other for the utter dis-
order in which they were lying — sometimes closely
packed together? The answer does not to me appear
difiicult, if we only from the beginning picture to
ourselves the case as it most probably was. There
can, it appears to me, be no doubt that these burial-
vaults, constructed of colossal stones, collected from
a greater or smaller distance, and then raised on
end, were built in order to last for a long time, per-
haps for centuries, as sepulchres for a whole tribe,
or perhaps only for the chief of the tribe and for his
relatives.* After such a vault had been finished, and

* Aristocracy is strongly developed amongst all savage nations.

168 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. IV.

the floor made level by means of earth, sand, or
clay, the corpses were deposited in it by degrees, as
some member of the tribe, or of the chiefs family,
died. For this purpose the gallery was constructed.
When, in course of time, the whole floor had been
covered with corpses, sitting or lying, the owner of
the vault, in order to prepare the necessary room for
a fresh series of corpses, ordered those which had al-
ready become skeletons to be levelled with the floor,
and those last placed in the vault, whose bodies had
not had time to become skeletons, were at the same
time flattened down on the floor, and on the top of this
crushed layer of bones was thrown a layer of earth
or sand, and in some instances of stones, like a pave-
ment, by which contrivance another solid floor was ob-
tained for a new series of corpses. When this second
floor, after many years, had also been filled up, the
same process was renewed, as often as required. In
this way we can account for the fact of the bones
lying in the confused and partly broken state in
which they were found by the excavators.

The hypothesis that the corpses were reduced to
skeletons before they were deposited in the grave,
is refuted by the following considerations: — Istly,
that no one is likely to deposit implements and orna-
ments with skeletons; and 2ndly, that the graves
being family graves, into which one corpse at a
time was deposited only every tenth, fifteenth, or
twentieth year, the previous one would certainly have
been changed into a skeleton before a new one would
be deposited there.

Ch.V.] missiles of the chase. 189

CHAPTER V.

OF THE HAKNEB IN WHICH THE ABOBIOINES MADE USE OF
THEIK WEAPONS IN THE CHASE AND IN WAB.

Having, in the previous part, shown in what man-
ner and by what means the savages of Scandinavia
prepared their implements and Int and bone wea-
pons, and the shape of them, we will now give a few
examples of how these weapons were used-partly in
the chase and partly in war. The following account
may serve as a specimen of the former.

§ 1. Evidence of the Manner in which Missile Weapons
are used in the Chase by Savages.

During the summer of 1840, there was exhumed,
in my presence, out of the bottom of a deep bog in the
south of Scania, a complete skeleton of the gigantic
wild hull with fiat forehead (Bos Urus^ * Scandina-
vian Fauna,' vol. i. page 537).* This ox had, some
few years previous to its death, been hit in the

* I Have in mj Fauna endeayoured to prove diat this is the real
Uru8 of Caesar, Gesner, and others, which the ancient Germans
called Ure. It has in much later times been called Bos primigenius
by Bojanus, which denomination seems to have originated through
ignorance of the fact that the former denomination (Urus) belongs
to the present fossil ^ecies.

170 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. V.

back by a javelin, fitted, to all appearance, with a flint
point, like some of those which have been sketched
on PI. III. figs. 55, 57, or 60.

The javelin, which must have been thrown at the
animal from in front, probably while rushing upon
the hunter, struck the processus spinosus of tlie first
vertebra lumbaris (PI. XI. figs. 220-222) at an angle
so acute with the surface of the bone, that it ap-
pears almost incredible that the spear could have
penetrated; and this would have been impossible,
had it not been exceedingly sharp-pointed and pro-
pelled with great speed by some means which I shall
explain hereafter. It passed, as I have already said,
through the processus spinosus of the first vertebra
lumbaris from fi'ont to back, and penetrated into the
second, where it stuck fast (figs. 221, 222). The
hole which it had made (fig. 220) became rounded
in consequence of suppuration, but on the other
side, where the javelin had passed out (fig. 222)
we see, by the shape of the wound, that the weapon
was compressed like a flint spear; and the scar left
where it passed into the second processus spinosus
shows that it must have been sharp-pointed. The
animal, according to the opinion of Mr. Nordling, a
veterinary surgeon, who saw the skeleton, was not
above five years old when it was killed, probably by
falling through a hole in the ice on the bog, where it
was found lying with the horns embedded in the clay ;
and by the bone formation (callus), where the javelin
had passed out, we see that it must have lived for some
time after it was wounded. It must, therefore, have

Ch. v.] MISSILES IN WAR. 171

been a very young animal when it was struck by the
javelin.*

Professor Japetus Steenstrup has given me other
proofs of flint arrows having been used in the chase,
by showing me fossil skulls of stags, in which small
arrow-heads were embedded; and in the Hunters'
Hall in the castle at Schwerin, several flint arrows
are preserved which have been found in bogs together
with skeletons of stags.

§ 2. The Mode of itsing Missile Weapons in War.

These small flint arrows have likewise been used as
weapons against man. Mr. S trunk, at Copenhagen,
has shown me a human skull in which a flint arrow
was embedded, which had penetrated through one of
the eye-holes.

But, in one respect, the most remarkable of all the
antiquities with which I am acquainted is the follow-
ing, by which we learn that the savages of our country
used to attack the first settlers when they commenced
to clear the woods. When, about thirty years ago, a
level piece of ground near the village of Tygelsjö,
in the south of Scania, was to be cultivated, there were
found, close under the surface of the earth, a num-
ber of skeletons of human beings who had been in-
terred there, and round each skeleton was a row
of stones forming an elongated square 7 feet by 3
(PL XIV. fig. 252). This manner of interring the

* I have presented this skeleton to the Zoological Museum at
Lund, where it is preserved amongst other bones from the peat-bogs
of Scania.

172 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. V.

dead occurs only amongst those nations who used
weapons of bronze, and probably only amongst the
poor, never amongst people who use only stone
weapons. As a further proof that these skeletons
belonged to a tribe which, when settling in the south
of Sweden, were in possession of bronze, I may men-
tion that one of the skeletons, probably that of a
woman, had round one of the arm-bones a spiral ring
made of semicircular bronze wire, such as was worn
by the people of the Bronze Age.

The skull of one of the skeletons was pierced with
a javelin of bone (PL XI. fig. 213, half-size) made
from the point of the antler of an elk, which, when it
came into my hands, was mutilated (fig. 213), but,
when found, had been quite perfect; about 7 inches
long, round, having the smaller end pointed, the
thicker cut off straight, and about afi inch in dia-
meter. The surface was scraped lengthwise, and
made smooth with some sharpened instrument, pro-
bably of flint, which had had a hacked edge, and
caused the scratches along the surface.

In order to show how this missile was fixed to the
shaft, I have sketched it on a reduced scale on PI. XI.
fig. 212. The string or strap, which no doubt was tied
more closely, I have represented loose in the sketch,
to show how well the savage understood the construc-
tion of his weapons in the most approved manner. An
even straight surface of the spear, resting against an
even straight surface of the haft, gives the greatest
possible strength to the latter to impel forward the for-
mer. In the same way the stone chisels of modem

Ch.V.] missiles in war. 173

savages are helved (PI. VI. fig. 129), and so were also
evidently the ancient chisels (PL VI. figs. 127, 134)
in old times. The spear-shaft now mentioned must
have been both long and heavy, probably of oak,
whereby great speed was given to the weapon thrown
with the whole force of the arm.

This missile, which had pierced the left parietal
close to the angle between the sagittal suture and
coronal suture (PL XI. fig. 219), had penetrated
about five inches into the skull, and was so firm that
it could not be wrenched out without force, having
made a round hole such as would have been caused
by a musket-ball. The circumstance that the bone
of the skull was not cracked or splintered proves that
the javelin had been thrown with extraordinary force,
and not thnist in by the hand at a short distance,
because in tlie latter case the bone would inevitably
have been splintered. It must astonish everybody
that the point of one bone could penetrate another
like a rifle-ball, and force a round hole in it with-
out even cracking the bone pierced through. We
may therefore infer that the savage of ancient times
understood the art of which the savages of the pre-
sent day avail themselves to impart the requisite
speed to their missiles. The Esquimaux in Green-
land employ a narrow throwing-board^ provided witli
a groove running lengthwise, in the middle of which
is a pointed wooden peg, bent forward, and in about
the middle of the spear- shaft is a hole running in the
same direction, into which the peg fits. When he
wants to throw his spear, he lays the th rowing-board

174 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. V.

along the under part of his arm, which he bends till
it lies horizontally, throws forward the arm instanta-
neously, retains the throwing-board in the hand, and
allows the spear to fly out with an astonishing speed,
causing it to whiz in the air. This was related to
me by eye-witnesses.* By the manner in which this
spear-head, made from the antler of an elk, had no
doubt been fastened to the shaft (PL XI. fig. 212),
we can easily explain how it could remain unbroken
in the head ; namely, the shaft must, in consequence
of the sudden jerk which the flying weapon received
when its point pierced the hard skull, have snapped
in its weakest part, or just where it was tied at a
thin part to the bone point.

If the savages of Scandinavia had any implements
with which they could increase the velocity of their
missiles, they must have been made of a substance
which has been destroyed by time, and we can there-

* The New-Hollander uses for the same purpose a nearly similar
throwing-board ; at its lower end is a peg, bent forward, and in the
lower end of the long javelin is a hole into which the peg is passed.
When the spear is thrown it is therefore impelled forward with an
incredible velocity.

In New Caledonia, New Zealand, and other neiglibouring islands,
no throwing-board is used, but the savage throws his javelin by
means of an implement which he calls * sipp,' a short thong or
plaited ribbon, which at one end has a loop through which he puts
his forefinger ; he then lays the thong round the middle of the spear-
shaft, to which he imparts a vibratory motion before throwing it out,
when it flies off with an immense speed and hits the mark.

It is remarkable that the Romans had also such an implement,
with which they imparted great speed to their javelins, nam<^ly, a
throiving-strapf which in their language was called amentum, (Virg.,
yEneid, ix. GG5.)

Ch. v.] ETHIOPUN MISSILES. 175

fore scarcely expect to meet with any such. But
from the effect produced by their missiles we can, with
the greatest probability, conjecture that they also pos-
sessed some such implement.

It is worthy of remark that we find javelins of the
same kind as that described above amongst another
half-savage tribe, belonging, moreover, to another part
of the world than Scandinavia.

Herodotus, in the seventh book of his * History,' de-
scribing the arms and accoutrements of the various
nations composing the army led by Xerxes against
Hellas, mentions in the sixty-ninth chapter also the
Ethiopians, who were so uncivilised that their weapons,
like those of the savages in Scandinavia, were made
only of stone and bone. They were clothed in the
skins of wild animals ; they had long bows made of the
stem of the leaves of the palm-tree, and arrows made
of reeds with sharp-pointed flint heads. They had,
further, javelins to which they had fixed the pointed
horn of the g«nzelle, in the same manner as a spear.
We observe that our savages were armed exactly in
the same way, with the difference only which different
latitudes required.

On the same occasion, when the savages at Tygelsjö
used the bone-point now spoken of as a javelin, they
used also the flint point for the same purpose, because
several spe<ar-points made of flint, partly in good pre-
servation and partly broken, were found amongst the
skeletons where this skull, pierced by the bone point,
was exhumed.

I have said that the bone point had hit and pene-

176 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. V.

trated the skull near the angle formed by the sutura
sagittalis and the sutura coronalis, consequently on
the top of the head, which seems to indicate that the
person who was killed with it was in a reclining posi-
tion when attacked. The assault on the colonists
was probably made at night-time by a horde of the
savages. That they were many in number is ap-
parently proved by the circumstance that several
spear-heads of flint, partly whole and partly broken,
were found amongst the skeletons, and had probably
been used in the combat.

After the assault the savages withdrew, and allowed
the surviving colonists to inter their dead according
to their own custom. Similar scenes of murder to this
between the savage aborigines of the country and the
first settlers in Scandinavia still occur between the
savages of America and the European colonists who
destroy their hunting-grounds. But it was formerly
even more fierce here, though the passion of extir-
pation in the stronger race against the weaker one is
by no means extinct. We will here cite an instance
which may illustrate certain passages of our legends.
It will likewise prove that the savage of America at-
tacks his victims when they are asleep, as was appa-
rently the case at Tygclsjö.

For this purpose we shall here insert some extracts
from Hearne's ' Journey in North America,'* in which
the tribe-hatred of the savages is depicted by an eye-
witness in all its ghastly colours.

* A Journey from Prince of Wales^s Fort to the Northern Ocean,
By Samuel Hearne. 4to. London, 1795.

Ch. v.] HK^RNE'S NARRATIVE. 177

In order to examine the Copper-mine River down
to its mouth, Heame had joined a tribe of Copper
Indians, and commenced his march along the bank of
the river. The Copper Indians are savages of the
American, or copper-coloured race, and are generally
tall powerful men. Although in language, as well as
in appearance, religion, etc., they are divided into
diflferent tribes, frequently waging war, pillaging,
and murdering each other's women, etc., still they
intermarry, and look upon each other as human
beings. But their conduct towards the Esquimaux is
quite different; these they consider scarcely human,
or at least far inferior to themselves. They have,
without the least cause, and from mere wantonness,
an insatiable desire to murder these poor defenceless
people.

Heame continues his narrative as follows : —
* During our stay at Clowey, a great number of
Indians entered into a combination with those of ray
party to accompany us to the Copper-mine River ;
with no other intent than to murder the Esqui-
maux, who are understood by the Copper Indians to
frequent that river in considerable numbers. This
scheme, notwithstanding the trouble and fatigue, as
well as danger, with which it must obviously be at-
tended, was nevertheless so universally approved by
these people, that for some time almost every man
who joined us proposed to be of the party. Accord-
ingly, each volunteer, as well as those who were
properly of my party, prepared a target, or shield,
before we left the woods of Clowey. These targets

178 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. V.

were composed of thin boards, about three-quarters
of an inch thick, two feet broad, and three feet long,
and were intended to ward off the arrows of the
Esquimaux.*

' Soon after our arrival at the river-side, three
Indians were sent off as spies, in order to see if any
Esquimaux were inhabiting the river-side between us
and the sea. On their return, it being about noon
(July 16, 1771), they informed my companions that
five tents of Esquimaux were on the west side of the
river. The situation, they said, was very convenient
for surprising them; and, according to the account,
I judged it to be about twelve miles f from the place
we met the spies. When the Indians received this
intelligence, no further attendance or attention was
paid to my survey; but their whole thoughts were
immediately engaged in planning the best method
of attack, and how they might steal on the poor
Esquimaux the ensuing night, and kill them all while
asleep. To accomplish this bloody design more ef-
fectually, the Indians thought it necessary to cross
the river as soon as possible ; and by the account of
the spies, it appeared that no part was more con-
venient for the purpose than that where we had met
them, it being there very smooth, and at a consider-
able distance from any fall. Accordingly, after the

* In one place (page 166), Hearne tells us that the arrows of the
Esquimaux were pointed either with a triangular black stone (con-
sequently like ours on PL V. fig. 98), resembling slate, or with a
bit of copper, but the forrmer were the most common.

•f About If Swedish mile.

Ch. v.] HEARNE^S NARRATIVE. 179

Indians had put all their guns, spears, targets, etc,,
in good order, we crossed the river, which took up
some time.

' When we arrived on the west side of the river, each
painted the front of his target, or shield ; some with
the figure of the sun, others with that of the moon,
several with difierent kinds of birds and beasts of
prey, and many with the images of imaginary beings,
which, according to their silly notions, are the inha-
bitants of the difierent elements, earth, sea, air, etc.

' On enquiring the reason of their doing so, I learned
that each man painted his shield with the image of
that being on which he relied most for success in the
intended engagement. Some were contented with a
single representation; while others, doubtful, as I
suppose, of the quality and power of any single being,
had their shields covered to the very margin with a
group of hieroglyphics quite unintelligible to every
one except the painter. Indeed, from the hurry in
which this business was necessarily done, the want of
every colour but red and black, and the deficiency of
skill in the artist, most of those paintings had more
the appearance of a number of accidental blotches
than " of anything that is on the earth, or in the water
under the earth;" and though some few of them
conveyed a tolerable idea of the thing intended, yet
even these were many degrees worse than our country
sign-paintings in England.

* When this piece of superstition was completed, we
began to advance toward the Esquimaux tents ; but

M 2

180 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. V.

were very careful to avoid crossing any hills, or talk-
ing loud, . for fear of being seen or overheard by the
inhabitants, by which means the distance was not only
much greater than it otherwise would have been, but,
for the sake of keeping in the lowest grounds, we
were obliged to walk through entire swamps of stiff
marly clay, sometimes up to the knees.

*It is perhaps worth remarking, that my crew,
though an undisciplined rabble, and by no means ac-
customed to war or command, seemingly acted on this
horrid occasion with the utmost uniformity of senti-
ment. There was not among them the least altercation
or separate opinion; all were united in the general
cause, and as ready to follow where Matonabbee led,
as he appeared to be ready to lead, according to the
advice of an old Copper Indian, who had joined us on
our first arrival at the river where this bloody busi-
ness was first proposed.

* Never was reciprocity of interest more generally
regarded among a number of people than it was on
the present occasion by my crew, for not one was a
moment in want of anything that another could spare ;
and if ever the spirit of disinterested friendship ex-
panded the heart of a northern Indian, it was here
exhibited in the most extensive meaning of the word.
Property of every kind that could be of general use
now ceased to be private, and every one who had
anything which came under that description, seemed
proud of an opportunity of giving it, or lending it to
those who had none, or were most in want of it.

' The number of my crew was so much greater than

Ch. v.] HEARNE'S NARRATIVE. 181

that which five tents could contain, and the warlike
manner in which they were equipped so greatly
superior to what could be expected of the poor
Esquimaux, that no less than a total massacre of
every one of them was likely to be the case, un-
less Providence should work a miracle for their
deliverance.*

* The land was so situated that we walked under
cover of the rocks and hills till we were within two
hundred yards of the tents. There we lay in ambush
for some time, watching the motions of the Esquimaux.
While we lay there, the Indians performed the last
ceremonies which were thought necessary before the
engagement. These chiefly consisted in painting their
faces ; some all black, some all red, and others with
a mixture of the two ; and to prevent their hair from
blowing into their eyes, it was either tied before and
behind, and on both sides, or else cut short all round.
The next thing they considered was to make them-
selves as light as possible for running ; which they did
by pulling off their stockings, and either cutting off
the sleeves of their jackets, or rolling them up close
to their armpits ; and though the mosquitoes at that
time were so numerous as to surpass all credibility,
yet some of the Indians actually pulled off their
jackets and entered the lists quite naked, except their
breech-cloths and shoes.

* It makes our blood freeze with horror when we see that
an enlightened Christian could be prevailed upon to witness such
a horribly preconcerted massacre of defenceless innocent fellow-
creatures, instead of doing all in his power to prevent this crime.
But see Note 9.

182 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. V.

* By the time the Indians had made themselves thus
completely frightful, it was near one o'clock in the
morning (July 17), when, finding all the Esquimaux
quiet in their tents, they rushed forth from their
ambuscade, and fell on the poor unsuspecting crea-
tures, unperceived till close at the very eaves of their
tents, when they soon began the bloody massacre. It
was shocking beyond description ; the poor unhappy
victims were surprised in the midst of their sleep,
and had neither time nor power to make any
resistance ; men, women, and children, in all upwards
of twenty, ran out of their tents stark naked, and
endeavoured to make their escape ; but the Indians
having possession of all the land side, to no side could
they fly for shelter. One alternative only remained,
that of jumping into the river; but as none of
them attempted it, they all fell a sacrifice to Indian
barbarity !

' The shrieks and groans of the poor expiring
^vretches were truly dreadful; and my horror was
much increased at seeing a young girl, seemingly
about eighteen years of age, killed so near me that
when the first spear was stuck into her side she fell
down at my feet, and twisted round my legs so that
it was with difliculty that I could disengage myself
from her dying grasps. As two Indian men pursued
this unfortunate victim, I solicited very hard for her
life ; but the murderers made no reply till they had
stuck both their spears through her body, and trans-
fixed her to the ground. They then looked me
sternly in the face, and began to ridicule me by

Ch. v.] HEARNE'S NARRATIVE. 183

asking if I wanted an Esquimaux wife ; and paid not
the smallest regard to the shrieks and agony of the
poor wretch, who was twining round their spears like
an eel. Indeed, after receiving much abusive language
from them on the occasion, I was at length obliged
to desire that they would be more expeditious in
dispatching their victim out of her misery, otherwise
I should be obliged, out of pity, to assist in the
friendly office of putting an end to the existence
of a fellow-creature who was so cruelly wounded.
On this request being made, one of the Indians
hastily drew his spear from the place where it was
first lodged, and pierced it through her breast near
the heart. The love of life, however, even in this
most miserable state, was so predominant, that, though
this might justly be called the most merciful act that
could be done for the poor creature, it seemed to be
unwelcome, for, though much exhausted by pain and
loss of blood, she made several efforts to ward off the
friendly blow.

* The brutish manner in which these savages used
the bodies they had so cruelly bereaved of life was so
shocking that it would be indecent to describe it.

' When the Indians had completed the murder of
the poor Esquimaux, seven other tents on the east
side the river immediately engaged their attention :
veiy luckily, however, our canoes and baggage had
been left at a little distance up the river, so that they
had no way of crossing to get at them. The river at
this part being little more than eighty yards wide,
they began firing at them from the west side. The

184 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. V.

poor Esquimaux on the opposite shore, though all up
in arms, did not attempt to abandon their tents ; and
they were so unacquainted with the nature of fire-
arms, that when the bullets struck the ground, they
ran in crowds to see what was sent them, and seemed
anxious to examine all the pieces of lead which they
found flattened against the rocks.* At length one of
the Esquimaux men was shot in the calf of his leg,
which put them in great confusion. They all imme-
diately embarked in their little canoes, and paddled
to a shoal in the middle of the river, which, being
somewhat more than a gun-shot from any part of the
shore, put them out pf the reach of our barbarians.

' When the savages discovered that the surviving
Esquimaux had gained the shore above mentioned,
the northern Indians began to plunder the tents of
the deceased of all the copper utensils they could
find, such as hatchets, bayonets, knives, etc. ; f after
which they assembled on the top of an adjacent high
hill, and standing all in a cluster, so as to form a
solid circle, with their spears erect in the air, gave
many shouts of victory, constantly clashing their spears
against each other, and frequently calling out Tima 1
tima / 1 by way of derision to the poor surviving
Esquimaux, who were standing in the shoal almost
knee-deep in water. After parading the hill for

* They behaved exactly like children. Compare Introduc-
tion.

f There occurred lumps of pure copper in the neighbourhood,
which the Esquimaux beat between stones into axes, knives, etc

} This word is, in the Esquimaux language, meant to be a friendly
acclamation, signifying How are you ? It was here used as a cruel
derision.

Ch. v.] IIEARXE'S NARRATIVE. 185

some time, it was agreed to return up the river to
the place where we had left our canoes and baggage,
which was about half a mile distant, and then to
cross the river again and plunder the seven tents on
the east side. This resolution was immediately put
in force ; and as ferrying across with only three or
four canoes took a considerable time, and as we were,
from the crookedness of the river and the form of the
land, entirely under cover, several of the poor surviv-
ing Esquimaux, thinking, probably, that we were gone
about our business, and meant to trouble them no
more, had returned from the shoal to their habita-
tions. When we approached their tents, which we
did under cover of the rocks, we found them busily
employed t3dng up bundles. These the Indians
seized with their usual ferocity; on which, the Es-
quimaux having their canoes lying ready in the
water, immediately embarked, and all of them got
safe to the former shoal, except one old man, who
was so intent on collecting his things, that, the
Indians coming upon him before he could reach his
canoe, he fell a sacrifice to their fury : I verily believe
not less than twenty had a hand in his death, as his
whole body was like a cullender.

* I ought to have mentioned in its proper place,
that in making our retreat up the river, after killing
the Esquimaux on the west side, we saw an old woman
sitting by the side of the water, killing salmon, which
lay at the foot of the fall as thick as a shoal of
herrings.* Whether from the noise of the fall or a

* She was fishiog with a leister armed with a few points. The
fish were so abundant, that when the leister was thrust into the water

180 TIIE STONE AGE. [Ch. V.

natural defect in the old woman's hearing, it l3 hard
to determine, but certain it is she had no knowledge
of the tragical scene which had been so lately trans-
acted at the tenta, though she was not more than two
hundred yards from the place. When we first per-
ceived her, she seemed perfectly at ease, and was
entirely surrounded with the produce of her labour.
From her manner of behaviour and the appearance of
her eyes, which were as red as blood, it is more than
probable that her sight was not very good ; for she
scarcely discerned that the Indians were enemies till
they were within t^vice the length of their spears of
her. It was in vain that she attempted to fly, for the
"wretches of my crew transfixed her to the ground in
a few seconds, and butchered her in the most savage
manner. There was scarcely a man among them
who had not a thrust at her with his spear; and
many in doing this aimed at torture rather than
immediate death, as they not only poked out her
eyes, but stabbed her in many parts very remote
from those which are vital.

^ When the Indians had plundered the seven tents of
all the copper utensils, which seemed the only thing
worth their notice, they threw all the tents and tent-
poles into the river, destroyed a vast quantity of dried
salmon, much oxen-flesh, and other provisions, broke
all the stone kettles, and, in fact, did all the mischief
they possibly could to distress the poor creatures they
could not murder, and who were standing on the shoal

and drawn up, it rarely failed to transfix two or three fish. (Com-
pare chap. i. page 70.)

Ch. v.] ESQUIMAUX REGAEDED AS SORCERERS. 187

before mentioned, obliged to be woful spectators of
their great or perhaps irreparable loss.'

The author then goes on to describe the ceremonies
which the Indians performed after the massacre, which
show that they considered themselves unclean from
having touched such despised and detested beings as
the Esquimaux. In another passage (page 33 S), the
author informs us that the main cause of these perse-
cutions is that the Esquimaux are looked upon as
sorcerers ; and that when any Indian chief dies, it is
said generally that the Esquimaux have killed him
by witchcraft. In the summer of 1756, upwards
of forty Esquimaux were treacherously assailed and
murdered by Indians, from no other motive than
that two of their chiefs had died the preceding
winter.

We shall now more closely contemplate the relation
here described between savage people of diflferent
races and tribes. It is evident that religious fanati-
cism had a share in this tiger-like ire of the Indians
against the Esquimaux ; they looked upon them as
goblins. That each of them painted their god, or
gods, on their shields before the combat, proves that
they hoped for victory from him ; and to him it was
also afterwards ascribed. This is likewise proved by
the ceremony on the hill.*

It is clear as daylight, that after such deeds and
victories as now described, stories must arise in which
the god of the Indians, whatever his name may be,

* The religious ceremonj ailcr the battle reminds us of the purifi-
cation of the Jews after slaying the Midiomtes. Num. xxxi. 19.

188 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. V.

is represented as the killer of goblins, as the de-
stroyer and extirpator of the cave-dwelling people,*
and so on ; and that these stories, when handed down
from father to son, became more and more intermixed
with marvellous additions. Let us imagine that
European civilisation, or a written language, had
never been introduced in America, but that the In-
dians themselves had transmitted these stories by
word of mouth to their posterity. What prose could
not achieve, the Skalds would do, for even half-savage
nomads have their bards; and, therefore, the recital
of these occurrences would, after thousands of years,
or perhaps even sooner, after the introduction of some
civilisation amongst the Indians, and when tales and
lays of ancient times were written down, appear no
less extravagant and marvellous than the most im-
probable of our own Sagas and lays of antiquity. f

Everybody who reflects upon this, and impartially
studies our ancient Sagas, in which it is related how
imps, dwarfs, goblins, and other enemies of the saga-
telling nations were either slain en masse and extir-
pated by their gods, or hunted down by them and
pursued into the depths of their caverns, mangled
by blows from axes, and pierced with red-hot arrows,
and so on, must undoubtedly recognise in these
our ancient Sagas the same hostile relation between

• The winter habitations of the Esquimaux are earth-caverns,
see page 133.

t And in the same way so ne historian might also, in the course of
time, assure his contemporaries and posterity that all these tales and
lays from ancient times were mere creations of fancy, mere myths
and allegories, which had no foundation in reality.

Cn.V.] HEREDITARY HATRED BETWEEN RACES. 180

the earliest savage and semi-savage tribes of Scan-
dinavia as that existing between the savage tribes of
America of our own day, as related by Hearne and
other travellers.

But although this hereditary hatred is more or less
intense between all savage nations, and consequently
also amongst the diflferent Indian tribes (page lö4),
still it manifests itself nowhere perhaps with so much
bitterness and with so little apparent cause, as when
the more powerful races, gifted with more suscepti-
bility and capable of a high civilisation, come into con-
tact with the now so-called polar race in America and
Europe.* It is evident that this race, so weak in a
physical and intellectual point of view, was formerly
spread more widely over both the hemispheres ; but,
probably in consequence of this hereditary hatred be-
tween the races, has been extirpated in many regions.

We have here already seen with what fury the
Copper Indians, without any provocation, murder the
poor Esquimaux. We find the same contemptuous
hatred against this defenceless people amongst the
Icelanders, who discovered Winland (the east coast of
North America, under lat. 40*^-42°). We are told
(in ' Antiq. Americ' page 42) that * when Thorwald
and his followers had landed there, having seen on
the beach of a small headland three mounds, they
went there, and discovered three boats, made of the
skins of wild animals, and three human beings (Skrä-
Imgart) under eax;h boat. They then divided and

* The same has probably been the case also in Asia,
f That is to say, Esquimaux.

100 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. V.

pursued the natives, seizing all excepting one, who
escaped in his boat. They slew the remaining eight,
and then returned to the headland, whence they
saw at a distance in the bay several other mounds,
which they supposed were houses,' etc.

We see thus, that in the tenth century the Gothic
tribes of the Caucasian race were animated by the
same desire as the Indian tribes of the American race,
to steal upon the helpless Esquimaux and to murder
them without any provocation whatever. The same
deadly hatred of the dwarf people in Europe, as of
the Skrälingar in America, is expressed in strong and
unmistakable features in our ancient Sagas. To what
end has this murderous propensity been implanted,
as it appears, by Nature herself? The paxagraph in
the code of Creation which ordains that everything
meaner, when it has fulfilled its mission here on earth,
shall perish and make room for something better,
does it also refer to the different races of man? This
subject may deserve to be more fully considered
and reflected upon by the philosopher.

Ch. VI.] STONE AGE OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 191

CHAPTER VL

THE STONE AGE OP DIFFEEENT NATIONS. — THE SOURCE OP
TRADITION. — DWARFS, GIANTS, GOBLINS, ETC., WERE ORI-
GINALLY PEOPLE OP DIFFERENT TRIBES AND RELIGION.

Every nation, even those most anciently civilised, has
had its Stone Age, * and where this has disappeared
before the commencement of history, traces of it have
still often been preserved in religious observances and
ceremonies, as already mentioned in Chapter II. of
this work.

Of all the different phases of civilisation through
which a nation must pass before it attains the highest
grade of development, the first rude state is the most
enduring and the most difficult to get over. An im-
portant ethnological discovery was made by Ermaii
during hi8 travels, namely, that the Argipp»ans of
Herodotus are the now existing Baschkirs of the Ural
mountain-districts, and that their present mode of
life is exactly like that described by Herodotus more
than 2,300 years ago; f and this people had no doubt
lived in the same wild state long before Herodotus
described them.

* As regards the Egyptians, see Chapter II. page ^^ note.
Besides this, during a visit to the British Museum in 1847, I saw,
among the Egyptian rough-edged arrows, one tipped with a rough
flint-flake.

t Erman's Travels in Siberia^ vol. i. p. 297.

102 TIIE STONE AGE. [Ch. VI.

That this first period of cultivation, the Stone Age,
was of long duration, even with our forefathers, a
people of the Indo-Germanic race here in the North,
we may conclude from the occurrence of many facts,
of which several will be mentioned in the following
chapter; we would only notice here, that this first
period of civilisation with us is so remote that neither
our history nor our traditions mention the use of any
other weapons than those of iron. The Bronze era
is not even mentioned,* and in all cases whefi arrows
of stone are mentioned, reference is invariably made to
the most ancient time of the Sagas, and to an entirely
different race. Certain, however, it is, that I have
been unable to find, either in history or in the ancient
Sagas, a single passage where any other weapons of
war than those of iron are mentioned as being used
by our ancestors (the people of the Gothic race).

This is certainlj^ only a negative proof, and may
therefore be looked upon as indecisive, but it gains
strength from the circumstance, that our ancestors,
especially the more wealthy and enlightened amongst
them — those, therefore, who have left records to pos-
terity — were a warlike people, and occupied them-
selves almost exclusively with the manufacture and
management of their weapons. Ancient laws contain

* Nor, indeed, is it mentioned with any other European people in
the North or West. With the Romans it was only known by tradition
that the Bronze era had preceded that of iron (' prior »ris erat quam
ferri cognitus usus,' Lucret.). Hesiod regretted that he lived during
the Iron Age. Homer's heroes belonged to the so-called heroic age.
The iron weapons of the Romans can be traced as far back at least
as Tarquinius Priscus.

On. VI.] STONE AGE OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 198

strict rules regarding the kind of weapons which
were to be furnished and employed. In hundreds of
Sagas, various weapons are described and extolled, but
every epithet there found proves that reference is made
to iron weapons only, and not to weapons of bronze
or of stone. Swords inlaid with gold and sUver,
gilt helmets, and harness ' shining like ice^^ are men-
tioned in our Sagas from the earliest historical period.*
I have visited seyeral places in Norway which the
national traditions indicate as having been battle-
fields in ancient times, but the weapons which have
been dug up there have all, without exception, been
of iron. The weapons used in the battle of Stickler-
stad, in 1030, were of iron and steel. Rusty pieces
of such weapons found on that battle-field have been
figured in several works. It may be supposed that
the iron weapons found there belonged to the
fallen Norsemen, and that the pagan army of peasants
used stone arrows. But this is not the case, at
least not generally. It is, moreover, an indubitable
&ct that one arrow at least shot from the hostile
ranks was of iron. Thormodr Kolbrunnarskald,
who, on the morning previous to the commencement
of the battle, and at the king's request, sang the
beautiful song:

Dagr er uppkominn, dynia hana fjadrir ;
Mai er Tilmögum at viniia erfithi,'|' etc.,

received during the engagement an arrow in his
chest. The arrow broke off in the wound, and the

* John, Om Krigsväsendet, page 192.
f Iduna Tidskrift, vol. i. page 58.

104 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VI.

surgeon, who, according to the custom of those times,
was a woman, endeavoured to extract it by means of
a pair of pincers, but in vain, the wound having be-
gun to swell. Thormodr therefore desired her to cut
into the flesh until the iron could be reached, and she
having done so, he himself pulled out the arrow-point,
which had become bent.* That the skald died from
the operation is irrelevant, but not so the fact, that
the murderous arrow, which had become hent^ must
have been of iron, and not of stone.

In the battle on Bråvalla plain, which was fought
at a much more remote date, viz. about the year 700 f,
and in the records of which many weapons and
various kinds of armour are described, nothing is
stated which will in any way justify the inference
that stone weapons had been used by any of the
various hordes which took a part in the battle. J As
those, however, by whom records of these events have
been left to posterity belonged to the more wealthy and
distinguished class, who used iron weapons, they no

* FostbrcedrasagaTiy page 215.

t The time is differently stated by different authors ; namely,
from the year 680 to 735.

J All this, however, does not prove that the use of stone weapons
was entirely abolished. We cannot suppose it possible that iron
came into general use all at once, but rather gradually and by
degrees, until it came down to the soldiery, and that the latter used
their weapons of stone for a long time, while the chiefs and richer
men had weapons of iron. We also see them together on sculptured
atones, ( Urtnvånarney vol. i. page 56.) The Bronze era did not
succeed in rooting out the use of stone weapons (even then stone
only was employed here for missile weapons) ; it was during the
Iron Age that the use of stone was at first gradually, and at last
altogether abolished.

Ch. VI.] ANTIQUITY OF STONE WEAPONS. 196

doubt considered the weapons of stone employed only
by the soldiers as too insignificant to be mentioned.

In the same way it may be explained that our
Eddas and ancient Sagas, which, as regards this sub-
ject, go back to the most remote antiquity, do not in
any single passage speak of war weapons of stone as
having been used by the people of the historical race,
whereas their war weapons of iron are frequently
mentioned, and extolled in the most exaggerated
terms. Their swords would cut stone as well as
cloth, and in order to test the sharpness of the
edges, a lock of wool was thrown into slowly running
water; the sword was held in it with the edge
towards the current while the wool was drifting
down upon it. If it cut the wool through, the wea-
pon was considered to be sufficiently sharp.*

It is also remarkable that stone weapons were, as
far ba<;k as we are acquamted with their history, used
neither by the Gothic race in Germany nor in Scan-
dinavia. Tacitus relates (*Germ.' vii.) that the Ger-
mans had war weapons of iron, and states that the
i^Bason why few of them used swords or large spears,
like the Romans, but lances, which in their language
were called /ramea (ohrime^ awl, a kind of pike armed
with a narrow and short piece of iron) was, that iron
was not abundant with them.f The only people

* Didr. of Bem*8 Saga, chap. xxi.

t It appears to me incomprehensible that notwithstanding Tacitas
relates this as a fact in plain words, there are antiquaries who in
later times declare -that the framea of Tacitus were of bronze, and
r&<<embled the so-called paalstav of the Danes ; which is certainly
neither narrow nor pointed, but broad at the edge, and like a chisel.

o 2

106 TILE STONE AGE. [Ch. VI.

known by Tacitus who were so poor and rude that
they were not even acquainted with iron, were the
Fenni. These Fenni were the same people who at
a later period were throughout the North called
Finns, i.e. Laplanders. For want of iron, they armed
their arrows with a sharp-pointed bone, as was the
custom of the Laplanders even as late as a century
ago.

We see by all this, that the people who have
transmitted to us some account of their history from
ancient times, as far back as history relates and the
Sagas I'ecount their adventures, have not, either in
Scandinavia or in Germany, sj^oken of weapons of any
other kind of material than of iron, but that, on the
other hand, the Laplanders had, at any rate, their
arrows tipped with bone. We also find that all na-
tions who are unacquainted with the use of metals,
and who employ arrows and other implements made
of hone^ have also others of stone^ and we know
that the Laplanders employed them even at a much
later period." From this circumstance alone, we come
to the conclusion that the dwarf people of the Saga,
who clearly belonged to the race of Laplanders, must
have had implements of stone and of bones of animals^
but not of metal. But we have a still more positive
proof in favour of this opinion. There is, at all events,
one passage in the Sagas in ^vhich it is distinctly
shown that the arrows of the dwarfs were of stone.
This remarkable passage occurs in ' Orvar Odd's Saga,'

(See Lisch Jahrhucher, vol. ix. page 335, fig. 6, page 376.) I
can see no reason why ferrum should be translated bronze.

Ch. VI.] 'ORVAR ODirS SAGA/ 107

which, as some of our readers are perhaps aware, is a
very interesting romance, and which has this in com-
mon with our modern so-called historical novels, that
real facts are mingled with imaginaiy adventures. It
is there related that the Viking Orvar Odd, having
in several battles lost his bravest and most faithful
followers, wandered about alone and restless, from
one country to another, seeking adventures. Finally,
he came to Huneland, where, in a forest, he met an
old man cutting wood near a small cottage. The
old man was of short stature, and his name was Jolf.
Orvar, wishing to conceal his real name, called himself
Vidförul, passed the night in the old man's cottage,
and in the morning, on leaving, presented him with a
knife. As a return present, the old man wished to
give him three stone arrows^ when Orvar observed:

* It is a good present, old man, but I am not aware
that I need carry stone arrows about with me.' ^ It
may happen. Odd,' said the old man, ^ that these stone
arrows may help thee, where the Guse arrows cannot
avail.' ' Knowest thou then that my name is Odd? '

* Yes,' replied the old man. ' Then,' said Odd, ' it
may be that thou knowest also why thou didst now say
that I shall have occasion to use thy stone arrows ; I
shall therefore accept them, and I thank thee much
for them ; ' and he put them into his quiver.

An explanation of this passage stands in immediate
connection with our subject. It is indeed not dis-
tinctly mentioned here that the little old man Jolf
was a dwarf (i.e. Laplander) ; but from many parallel
passages in the Sagas, and from his demeanour, his

198 THE STONE AGE. [Oh. VI.

cunning, his skill in witchcraft, and his prognosti-
cations, we clearly infer that he belonged to the
dwarf race. I must further remind the reader that
the CrUse arrows which Odd carried in his quiver, and
of which circumstance Jolf was aware, were three
magic arrows taken from the Lapland chief Guse,
which arrows had the property of hitting everything
at which they were aimed, after which they returned
of their own accord to the bow-string. Odd's answer,
which in a romance would of course be considered as
expressing the general opinion at that period, has
therefore the following meaning : The present is in
itself valuable, but I am not aware that I shall need
these magic stone arrows, as I already carry in my
quiver the Guse an'ows, which have a certain magical
power. But the old man, who was a sorcerer, and
who could read the future, gave Odd to understand
that he should one day be exposed to sorcery, against
which only his own magic arrows, and not the Guse
arrows, would be able to protect him. The old
man's prediction was soon verified, for Odd became
the leader in a battle, in which an invisible witch,
Gyda, caused him great loss of men. Odd aimed
at her first with the Guse arrows. *When Gyda
heard them whistling through the air, she held
up the palm of her hand to receive them, but they
made no more impression thereon than upon a stone.
Odd shot off all the Guse arrows, but they all fell
amongst the grass. " Now," said Odd, " what Jolf
predicted has come to pass : the Guse arrows are lost ;
it remains now to try his stone arrows." Thereupon

CH.VL] SUPERSTITIONS. 199

Odd took one of the stone arrows and aimed at Gyda ;
she heard it whistling through the air, and held up her
wrist; the arrow pierced her hand, entered her eye,
and came out at the neck. Odd shot off the second
arrow, which flew the same way. Then he let off
the third arrow, and it hit Gyda in the forehead, and
immediately she fell down dead.'

This ancient romance shows very clearly that at
the time when it was composed, neither arrows, nor
other weapons of stone, were in common use as
weapons, but that even then the opinion was generally
current that these stone weapons, which owed their
existence to the dwarf race, skilled in sorcery, were
endowed with a magic power against witches and
witchcraft, which no other weapons possessed.

We still find, here and there, traces amongst
the peasantry of the superstition that stone imple-
ments possess inherent magic power. Some of the
peasantry even now believe that stone wedges are a
protection against lightning, and they have therefore
always a few of them in their possession, which they
cannot easily be prevailed upon to part with. In
some districts they were formerly placed in the bed
beside women near their confinement, in order to
lighten the pains of labour. They are still occasion-
ally used by the peasantry against a cutaneous disease
in children called the ' white fire.' With the aid of
a piece of steel, sparks are emitted firom them which
are made to fall upon the head of the child.

Superstitious notions of the same kind appear to
be entertained also by the peasantry in Ireland and

200 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VL

Scotland. Mr. E. Lloyd relates, ia his * Observations
on Wales,' that during his journey in Scotland, he
was particularly amused with the many different kinds
of amulets preserved by the inhabitants. Amongst
these he mentions stone arrows^ which were believed
by them to have belonged to the elves. In ' Nenia
Britannica,' London, 1793, page 154, is the figure of
a stone arrow from Ireland (like that given on Pl.V.
fig. 96)," mounted in silver ; and the author states
that the peasants call these flint arrows * elf-arrows,'
that they mount them in silver, and wear them round
the throat as amulets against ' elf-shots.'* We must
here remember that the elves of the Eddas and
Sagas were of two kinds, and that one of them, the
black elves, were identical with the dwarf people,
i.e. Laplanders (' Snorr Edda,' pages 119, 123). Thus
the 'elf-shots' of the Irish peasantry are identical
with the ' Lap-shots ' of the Swedish peasantry, and
consequently, this is a further proof that the magical
stone implements belonged to the dwarf people. Some
people may think it strange that a person should carry
about with him ' Lap-arrows ' as a protection against
* Lap-shots,' but this is in perfect accordance with an
old popular superstition, and is not more strange than
the hereditary conviction of the same people that stone

• These accounts are very instructive. They prove that it was
not the Celts themselves, but a people considered by them to be
versed in magic, who fabricated and used these stone arrows.
Formerly stones shaped like a heart were set in the same way in
silver and worn round the throat as amulets, probably as a pre-
servative against * Lap-shots * and other sorceries carried on in the
air. I have never seen them made of flint, but only of amber.

Ch. VL] ancient inhabitants of SWEDEN, ETC. 201

bolts, which have fallen during thunder-storms, are a
protection against lightning. This accords with an
old popular belief already mentioned in the Edda,
namely, that the same matter which has hurt can also
cure : thus the flesh of the snake, or hair of the dog,
which has bitten a person, is laid as a salve upon the
wounds.

We have already seen by the description, as well
as the sketches of skulls in Chapter III. (both short-
headed, br achy cephalic^ and long-headed, dolichoce^
phaliCy the former resembling those of the Laplanders,
the latter those of the other inhabitants), that people
of different tribes inhabited this coimtry even during
the Stone Age. It may be assumed, for several
reasons, that the race of people of which the Lap-
landers form the remnants was spread over Sweden,
Denmark, and other places ; since, on the one hand,
crania, which evidently belong to this race, have been
found in many places in the earth, and in bogs in the
south of Sweden; and, on the other hand, because
many words in the Swedish and Danish languages
have a great similarity to synonymous words in the
Lapland tongue. Profound investigators, as Rask,
Petersen, Christie, and others, have already proved
this. Those who doubt it may perhaps reply, that at
any rate some of them might just as well have origi-
nally been adopted from the Swedish into the Lapland
tongue, as vice verså^ and though this mixture of lan-
guages certainly proves an intercourse between both
races, it does not prove that the Laplanders necessa-
rily inhabited those places where, in the language, one

202 THE STONE AGE. [Oh. VI.

meets with Lapland words, and therefore it has
not been proved that the Laplanders formerly inha-
bited the central and south part of Sweden. But
besides the Lapland skulls found in ancient tombs,
the presence of Lapland local names strongly sup-
ports the above-mentioned opinion. Those who are
well acquainted with the Lapland tongue have re-
cognised several such names, not only in the central
and southern parts of Sweden and Norway, but also
in countries south of Sweden. The distinguished
linguist, Mr. Rask, assumes, in consequence of this,
that the Laplanders in ancient times inhabited the
whole of Denmark.* According to his interpretation,
the name Samsö is from the Lapland language. The
islands of Hvidn, anciently Hoidn, owe their name to
a Lapland word, apparently derived from voudn (bay,
or frith). A great number of other names in the
North, which cannot be traced to Gothic roots, seem
also to have been derived from the Lapland language ;
for instance, Falstr^ FjÖUy Hledra, Thotn^ in Norway,
and others. Trollhättan is said to be derived from the
nickname troll (goblin) and the Lapland word haiite^
(rapids). On the Dovrefield, the people assert that
the local name Jerkin was of Lapland origin, and
a trace of the residence of the Laplanders in that
part; the lake Jerkin, in the province of Upland,
has the same name. The Allvar of Oland may
be easily traced to the Lapland words all (high) and
vare (hill). There is a similar locality in Scania, the
ancient name of which. Allvar^ seems to have been

* Oin det Nordisk Sproga Oprindehe, page 114.

Ch. VL] THE SOURCE OF TRADITION. 203

retained for a farm in that province, Allvarstorp,
pronounced Alfvastorp by the peasantry. The word
all has been retained in a great number of names of
hills and eminences in Scania. Thus, the Lapland
words stock (sound, inlet) and gam (lake) seem to
enter into many Swedish local names.

If we now consider, that besides Lapland local names
peculiar to the south of Sweden there are a great
many ancient Sagas, which have evidently been handed
down from generation to generation, relating to
dwarfs^ cavern-people^ or goblins^ who formerly lived
in such or such a mountain-cave, and in such or such
a crag — and many such places are still shown by the
country people, especially in those districts where
crags are found, but sometimes also in districts
where only larger earth-mounds are met with ; and if,
moreover, we remember that to these places are at-
tached detailed Sagas of occurrences which are said to
have happened there, and in which Sagas the student
easily recognises ethnological features which cannot pos-
sibly have been invented — then we are compelled to
admit that these stories, still current amongst the
people, must have some historical basis, and that it is
impossible they can be merely creations of fancy;
we are forced to assume that individuals of the Lap-
land people have lived at all events near or about
those places which the national Sagas indicate as
their dwellings.

Thus, this smaller and weaker tribe have been ex-
pelled, even here in the North of Europe, by a
stronger and larger race of people ; as is also the case

204 TIIE STONE AGE. [Ch.VL

in North America, where the Esquimaux, the polar
race of the New World, were the first settlers, but
were by degrees expelled by a larger and stronger
race, namely, the copper-coloured Indians.

Very nearly the same thing happened long ago
here in Europe, as is now taking place in America.
We can thus trace a similarity between the two
worlds, inasmuch as in both the conquering and
more powerful tribes believed the polar race to be
skilled in sorcery, and for that reason expelled and
persecuted them. I have alluded to our Sagas and
traditions. It appears to me evident, that during the
long period extending, probably, over thousands of
years, when the aborigines of the country were unable
either to read or write, verbal traditions began, and
were handed down from generation to generation ; it
also appears evident, that when the more civilised
people arrived in the countiy, where they gradually
became settlers, and fell in with a ruder people of
another race, with different features, and of different
size from their own, with dress, language, manner of
living, and religious ceremonies also different from
theirs, whom they then conquered, expelled, or extir-
pated, just as is the case now with savage and half-
savage nations, the memory of these occurrences,
so higlily important to them, must have taken deep
root in their minds, and have been transmitted from
parents to children through succeeding generations :
distorted, probably, by numerous additions, in conse-
quence of their religious views changing with time, but
still preserving so much of its original characteristics,
that, if treated without prejudice, these may easily be

Ch. VI.] THE SOURCE OF TRADITION. 203

recognised. The national traditions and Sagas, of
which Scandinavia possesses so rich a store, having
been here alluded to, I must beg the reader to remem-
ber that they are of two kinds, secular and religious^
both resting upon historical ground. In favour of the
former, we have no other evidence than that they are
related by the people, but exactly alike in districts
very remote from one another : this was, at least, still
the case sixty or seventy years ago. He who does not
remember that time, and still more, he who has been
brought up in a large town, cannot easily form an idea
of the veneration with which they were told and list-
ened to by the country people. Other times have suc-
ceeded- to these, and the enlightened man of the world,
or the town-resident, if occasionally he has an op-
portunity of listening to these Sagas, looks upon them
as mere foolish prattle, unworthy the attention of an
educated man. The religious Sagas seem to have a
little more foundation than the others, because they
continue to live in certain religious customs and rites
among the people. By the enlightened they are called
superstition. Every remnant of a religious worship
subverted in the course of time through changed
ideas, becomes superstition. No superstition can have
arisen isolated and of itself. When it arose, and
for a long time afterwards, it was a faith^ and formed
part of a distinct religious worship ; but when this
worship was destroyed, the external forms, which were
still continued by the people, became mere super-
stition. Superstition is, therefore, nothing else than
the spectre of a formerly living faith ; it is the ruin
of an ancient temple long overthrown.

206 THE STONE AGE. [Cn. VL

Such remnants of pagan worship are still found
amongst the people here, and the impartial enquirer
will be able, without much diflSculty, to distin-
guish which of them have belonged to the worship of
Thor, Baal, or Odin, Every religious change in a
people is in fact only an intermixture of religions;
because the new religion, whether received by means
of convincing arguments, or enforced by the eloquence
of fire and sword, cannot at once tear up all the wide-
spreading roots by which its forerunner has grown in
the heart of the people: this must be the work of
many years, perhaps of many generations.

Looked upon in this light, enquiries into national
traditions and superstitions are of great interest to
the ethnologist, as they enable him to trace the ear-
liest history of the race to which they belong. In my
capacity of ethnographer I must contemplate the na-
tional Sagas from an historical, not from an sesthetic,
point of view, although I am well aware that there are
many who consider the latter as the only right one.

In my researches relating to this subject, I intend
following the method hitherto adopted; namely, to
treat the same as comparative ethnology. And in
order to prove that our national traditions rest upon
historical foundation, I may be permitted, first, to
remind the reader of what has previously been said —
how savage tribes in America conquer and expel
weaker ones, even in our own days; and we shall
then endeavour to discover, in the earliest tra-
ditions of our own native land, the traces of similar
occurrences.

Ch. VI.] DWARFS, GIANTS, GOBLINS, ETC. 207

We shall begin by enquiring whether the names
in* the ancient traditions, dwarfs^ giants^ gobiins^ and
elves^ really refer to human beings, or whether they
denote mythical and allegorical beings, which have
had no historical existence.

Proofs that the Dwarfs and Pigmies of the Sagas were
Human Beings^ that they belonged to the same
Race as the Laplanders of the present Day^ and
that our Ancestors considered them to be skilled in
Witchcraft.

It has often been asserted that the dwarfs men-
tioned in the ancient Sagas were not real men, but
mythical and allegorical beings, meant to typify
certain powers and conditions of nature. This mode
of explanation is a very convenient one for fancy;
since if we can only succeed in transferring any given
object to the realms of fiction, we can then treat
it according to our own fancy, and play with it as
a child with its doll.

But in the description of dwarfs as given by the
Sagas we find too many and too distinct ethnological
characters to admit of any such theory. The reason for
supposing that the dwarfs have no historical reality is,
probably, in the first instance, that they are said to
have performed several supernatural and impossible
feats, or, in other words, that they practised sorcery.*

* Poets and inventors of Sagas in olden times were always in the
habit of embellishing their stories with extrayagancies, and jet these
were always founded upon real events. Thus Homer describes the
giant Polyphemus and the Princess Circe as sorcerers; and yet

208 THE STONE AGE [Ch. VI.

But this does not fully entitle us to deny their
historical existence. In that case not only the Lap-
landers in Europe, but also the whole Esquimaux
race in America, ought for the same reason to be re-
garded as mythical and allegorical, because it is not
long since that people living in their neighbourhood
believed (and possibly still believe) the former to
be sorcerers ; and the Indian tribes in America
think, even to this day, that the latter are still ac-
quainted with the black art. This is the chief reason
why they wish to extirpate the Esquimaux race.

Neither is it reasonable to consider the dwarfs as
aUegorical beings, merely because a great many ex-
travagant things have been told about them in the
Sagas; for we ought to remember, that rude nations
always relate the most exaggerated stories of people
belonging to a strange race. I will endeavour to elu-
cidate this by an example. When Mr. Mackenzie was
travelling in North America, the Esquimaux described

Dubois de Montpéreux, who visited the localities where the adven-
tures described by Homer are said to have happened 3,000 years
ago, has, in our own days, shown, by local and ethnological evidence,
that these fictions had an historical foundation ; that the Black Sea
and its shores were the scene of the wanderings of Ulysses ; that
the Greeks were rovers, like the Vikings of the North ; and that the
nations whom they visited during their expeditions were more
civilised than they were themselves. (Compare Dubois, Voyage
autour du CaucasCy vol. i. pages 60-61, and also a subsequent
volume.) This fact is very remarkable in an ethnological point
of view. What was the nation that 1,200 years before Christ was
BO civilised ? Without doubt a people of Semitic race, which spread
civilisation to many regions of the earth and was also the teacher
of the Greeks, although these in the course of time &r surpassed
it.

Oh. VI] DWARFS, GIANTS, GOBLINS, ETC. 209

to him certain white people (the English), who were
said to have a citadel on the banks of a river near
the west coast — in terms quite as extravagant as any
that are to be met with in the Sagas. The Esqui-
maux, for instance, believed firmly that the white men
were giants; that they had wings; that they could
kill with a glance of their eye, and swallow a whole
beaver at a mouthful.

If the dwarfs mentioned in the Sagas are to be
regarded as mythical beings, the English and other
Europeans might just as reasonably be so described;
and the whole white population of America might,
in the course of ages, come to be looked on as a
mere myth and allegory.

We find a counterpart to the Esquimaux descrip-
tion of the whites in the Saga of Olof Trygvadson,
relating to a couple of Finns (Laplanders), with
whom the fair Gunhild was staying in order to learn
the science of sorcery. They also could kill with
a glance, because when anything living encountered
their eye, it fell down dead at once, and when they
were angry, the earth recoiled at a look. They missed
nothing at which they aimed; they could follow
the trail like dogs, on frozen as well as on damp
ground, and they could run in snow-shoes so swiftly
that neither man nor beast could overtake them.

Yet this description is not in reality more ex-
travagant, neither does it deserve more to be looked
upon as a myth or allegory, than the description
which the Esquimaux gave of the Englishmen with
their gigantic stature, etc.

210 THE STONE AGE. [Ch.VI.

Scarcely anything of an uncommon character has
escaped exaggeration and distortion by ignorance.
It would be wrong to believe that nothing which
becomes thus changed, while going from mouth to
mouth, ever existed in reality ; but no sensible person
will believe that it has existed or occurred exactly as
it is described in our ancient tales.

In many passages of our early Sagas we are told
that the dwarfs icere corporeal and human beings,
and considered as such by the narrators themselves,
although of another race. The dwarf Sindre, who
dwelt in a mountain-cavern on the small island of
Brännön (in the province of Bohusland), had two
children, a boy and a girl, whom Thorstein Vikingson
found playing together near a brook in the island.
In order to procure an interview with their father,
he made some presents to the children, by which
the father, who was very fond of his children, was
won over to give Thorstein the advice and assist-
ance which he required. Thus it is told, that when in
single combat, one of Eigil's hands had been chopped
off, he met near a brook in the forest a dwarfs child^
coming with a bowl to fetch water. Eigil dropped a
gold ring into the child's bowl, for which the father
(the dwarf), in order to prove his gratitude, in-
vited Eigil into his mountain-cave, where he cured
his wound (' Eig. Saga,' page 46). In the vicinity of
Odin's castle (which in the Saga of Hedin and Högne
is transferred to Asia), there lived some men skilled
in the art of fabricatino: all sorts of thinsfs. *Such

o o

men are called dwarfsJ* * They dwelt in caverns, but

im. .■■*. -IJP^^^^^^^^^^^^^^PPM

Ch. VI.] DWARFS, GIANTS, GOBLINS, ETC. 211

at that time they had more intercourse with "men"
than now/

I must remark in passing, that all rude nations
apply the designation *men' to themselves only, all
others being differently designated. To the Green-
landers, Greenlanders alone, and to the Samoyedes,
Samoyedes alone are men. When, therefore, in any
Saga, dwarfs and Jotnar (giants) are mentioned in
contradistinction to men^ it proves only that they did
not belong to the same race as those who narrated
the Saga, So it is in Didrik of Bern's Saga (chap.
XX.), etc. In Sturleson's ' Ynglinga Saga,' it is said:
'In Sweden (Suithiod) there exist several nations,
and sundry languages ; there are giants and there are
dwarfs.'* We cannot doubt that by dwarfs is here
meant a certain race of people.

In Thorstein Bejarmagn's Saga we are told that
Thorstein came once with his ship to Jemtland,
where he went ashore. On an open plain he saw
a large stone, and beside it a dreadfully savage-
looking dwarf wailing aloud. It appeared to Thor-
stein as if the dwarfs mouth was open from ear to ear.

* Wherefore dost thou weep?' enquired Thorstein.

* Dost thou not see,' answered the dwarf, 'the large
eagle flying yonder ? He has carried off my son, and
I believe that the brute has been sent by Odin.
I shall die if I lose my child.' The dwarf, therefore,
was no Odin worshipper, which indeed the Laplanders
never were. Thorstein shot the eagle, and brought
the dwarf-chUd unscathed to the father, who, in his
joy, made Thorstein a present of some magical im-

F 2

212 THE STONE AQR [Ch.VL

plements, which afterwards became very useful to
him.

From what I have now stated, we see that the
dwarfs lived in mountain-caves. The Laplanders
likewise dwelt in similar caves during later times.
Mr. Högström saw caverns in which they had for-
merly lived, in order to escape the persecutions of
the Karels. In the Piteå Lapland district it is said
that traces are still to be found of such caverns in
several places. The Lapland families took shelter
in them, * in order to conceal themselves from their
enemies, while they were ravaging the country.'
P. La3stadius * narrates as follows : —

* There is a Saga which tells us how some hostile
people once discovered such an earth-cavern by hear-
ing a woman from within calling out to somebody
who was in an inner room to fetch the cooking-ladle.
This was overheard by the enemy outside, who forth-
with broke in upon them, and slew those who were
in the cavern.' f

The Laplanders, however, now live almost generally
in huts, called gammar^ and there is no other people

* Forstattning af Missionsresor, page 486.

•f This narrative recalls very vividly to my mind a great many
Sagas in the south of Sweden, in which we are tt)ld of people who
happened to pass some mountain-crag or earth-mounds, or who had
laid dow^n to rest and who overheard the cavern -people speaking in
the mound, or heard their children cry, or had peeped through a chink
to see what they were doing, or had seen smoke issue out of a hole in
the mound. In Scania there are several crags of which similar
things are reported by tradition. Amongst others, there is tlie Saga
of Finn, who built the cathedral at Limd.

Ch. VL] dwarfs, giants, goblins, etc. 213

in the world, except the Laplanders, who live in
such dwellings. It is therefore very elucidative of
our subject that at least in one of our ancient Sagas it
is expressly mentioned that a dwarf was living in a
gamm. In Didrik of Bern's Saga (chap, xvi.) we are
told how one day Didrik was out hunting on horse-
back in a forest, and that while chasing a stag, he saw
a dwarf running at some distance from him. He
hastened after him, and seized hold of him ' before he
had time to reach his gamm.^ The name of this
dwarf was Alfrik ; he was a famous thief and a great
artificer. He had forged the sword Nagelring^ which
was owned by Grim, whom he (the dwarf) advised
Didrik to challenge.

That the dwarfs, in their scattered dwellings, still
used stone implements, even after more civilised
people had settled in the country, the following story
(told in Scania) leads us to infer: — A peasant who
had gone out to look for his horses, wandered
about nearly the whole day without finding them.
Towards evening, when he came into a previously
unfrequented tract, he met with a dwarf who was
working in the forest. The dwarf, on perceiving
the peasant close beside him, became so alarmed that
he immediately threw down his tools, and ran away
as fast as he could. The peasant then approached
the place where the dwarf had been, and found there
an axe, a chisel, and some other tools ; but he could
not make any use of them, * because the dwarf, before
running away, had transformed them all into stone.'

This Saga contains too much genuine truth not to

214 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VL

be a feet. It shows the opinions held by the Gothic
people of the scattered dwarf race ; namely, Istly, that
the dwarfs worked like other people, and had human
wants to satisfy; 2ndly, that they were shy, and
would run away as soon as a person of another race
appeared to them ; and, 3rdly, that they could deceive
one's visual organs, and change themselves, or any
other object, into what they pleased; or, in other
words, they were sorcerers. To those who do not
believe in sorcery, this Saga only proves that the
dwarf tools were not transformed into stone, but that
they were really of stone.

We have mentioned above, that stone amulets are
still worn by the peasantry in Scandinavia, Scotland,
and Ireland, It is clear that the Christian religion,
during the thousand years it has been preached
amongst us, has swept away most of the pagan super-
stitions, and that, therefore, such stone amulets were
formerly much more generally worn than now.* That

* Some remnants of paganism may Btill be traced in several
customs of the common people ; but being perfectly harmless, and
containing nothing which is oifensive to the Christian mind, they
neither cast reproach on the popular teachers, nor do they need
contradiction. They are, however, interesting to the historical
enquirer, as the ruins of a religious edifice, crumbled into dust ten
centuries ago, and they tell him, perhaps, much upon which history
is silent. It would be an interesting undertaking, and one at the
same time of considerable importance in its results, to collect all the
remnants of popular customs which have their root in paganism.
I shall here state one instance.

Those who have travelled in the south of Sweden, and perhaps in
other countries, have no doubt often observed a mound of stones
piled up, and near it a wooden cross, bearing an inscription informing
the traveller that such or such a person has perished by some

Ch. VI.] LIFE-STONES, VICTORY-STONES, ETC. 215

such is the case we are told in our ancient Sagas. In
them are mentioned life-stones^ victory -stones^ etc.,
which the Gothic warriors carried about with them
in battle, in order to secure victory. In Didrik of
Bern's Saga, chapter xxv., it is related that King
Nidung gathered a large warlike host, with which he
marched against his enemies. He was only one day's
march distant from the hostile army, expecting to do
battle on the following day, when he discovered that
he had forgotten his victory -stone^ which he had left
at home. * This stone was an heir-loom in his family,
having passed from father to son during many gene-
rations, and it possessed the virtue of ensuring victory

accident near the spot. This heap of stones is the pagan cairn,
beside which Christianity has planted its cross.

I remember well how astonished I was in my childhood when I
saw old men amongnt the peasantry never daring to walk or to ride
past such places until they had found a stone to throw upon the
heap. If no stone could bo found, they took pieces of wood, branches
of trees, or twigs of bushes, or such like, to throw upon it, since it was
held to be a sacred duty that the cairn should be in some way
increased. But why ? This they could not themselves explain.
The only answer that I could obtain from them was, that some
mischance would befall them if they neglected this duty. This
ancient custom is, however, now less conscientiously observed.

May we not reasonably conclude that this practice, which has
fallen very much into disuse during the last fifty or sixty years, was
held more sacred one or more centiuries ago, and that it was honoured
most particularly during pagan times 7 And may we not be certain,
that the large cairns, which date from that period, and which are
found lying for the most part near the more public roads, were not
raised at once, but were built up by degrees by the passers-by ?
I remember having read somewhere, that it was considered as
honouring the dead to increase his cairn with one or more stones.
See Note 10.

216 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VI.

to him who carried it in the fight.' The king, dreading
to lose the battle if he had not his victory-stone about
him, especially as his army was weaker in numerical
force than his adversary's, promised the hand of his
daughter, together with a third of his kingdom, to
liim who should bring him this valuable stone before
the commencement of the battle. Valent, the ar-
mourer, rode back to fetch the stone; he gave it to
the king, who thereupon attacked the enemy and won
the battle.

In the ninety-sixth chapter of this Saga there is a
still more elucidative narrative concerning such a
victory -stone. Ditlew, a youthful champion from Tu-
matorp, in Scania,» encountered an old warrior, Sigurd
by name, in single combat. Towards evening, Sigurd
became fatigued, and observed that he had left his
victory-stone at home. He therefore invited Ditlew
home with him to spend the night in his house, so
that they might continue the fight on the following
day. Here Ditlew made the acquaintance of Sigurd's
brave daughter Gunhild, and they forthwith fell in
love with each other. Old Sigurd, as soon as he
entered his house, hung his victory-stone round his
neck ; but having drunk deeply during the night, he
fell into a heavy sleep. Gunhild then stole the stone
from her father, and gave it to her sweetheart. When
the combat was renewed on the following day, Sigurd
received three wounds, whereupon he owned himself
vanquished.

• Now Tomerup, or Tomai-p, a hamlet of Gladsax, formerly a
town of some importance.

Ch. VI.] CHARACTER ASCRIBED TO DWARFS. 217

It follows from this, firet, that the amulets which
the warriors carried about with them in order that
they might be victorious were of stone ; secondly, that
they were worn on a string^ or strap^ round the neck.

We find in collections several other stones, which
appear to have been worn as victory-stones; e.g. a
hammer-stone with an iron hoop and loop.*

Among other qualities, the dwarfs were suj)posed to
have the power of rendering themselves invisible. In
the Swedish, as well as in the Danish folk-sagas^ there
are often narratives of how the goblins (as the dwarfs
are sometimes called f ) attended a wedding, but in-
visibly, and ate all the food of the guests.

In the vicinity of Romeleklint, in Scania, where
formerly many tales were told about pigmies who
dwelt in the klint (crag), it is also narrated, that
whenever the dinner-bell was rung in Heckeberga
Hall, the goblins ran thither from the crag and carried
off all the eatables prepared for the inmates. As this
was of constant occurrence, the family was ultimately
reduced to great poverty.

An exactly similar story is related by Sturleson in
his * King's Sagas' (vol. i. page 79), We are there
told that King Halfdan Svarte (the Black) one day
was a Yule guest in Hadeland, and that on Christmas-
eve, while at supper, and a great many guests being
assembled, all the eatables and drinkables suddenly

• Urinvånarney first edition, PL XII. fig. 154.

f Ooblin is an appellation which seems generally to be applied to
those who did not belong to the Svea (Asa) or Gothic race. They
might thus belong as well to the Jotna as the dwarf race, though
mostly to the latter.

218 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VI.

disappeared from the banquet-tables. The king sat
sorrowfully m his seat, whilst all the guests returned
to their respective homes.

In order to learn who had played him this unplea-
sant trick, the king ordered a Finn (Laplander), who
was much skilled in witchcraft, to be seized, and he
had him tortured in sundry ways to compel him to
reveal the truth ; but he revealed nothing. The Finn
then made his escape, and with him fled the king's
son, Harold, then ten years old. On their flight they
came to the dwelling of a chieftain (without doubt a
Finn chieftain), by whom they were well received,
and with whom they remained until the following
spring. One day the chieftain said to Harold : * Thy
father was very wroth that I took some victuals from
him last winter; but I will now make amends by
telling thee some good news. Thy father is dead,
and now thou shalt return home and take the king-
dom which was his; and I will give to thee besides
the whole of Norway to reign over.'

It was therefore, as we see, the Finn chief who,
with the assistance of the Laplanders, had enchanted
away the viands from the Yule-board. This Saga
and its solution thus explain also how the sorcery
at Romeleklint was managed. Nearly similar witch-
eries, now generally called thefts, are said to be still
practised amongst those Norwegians who live in the
neighbourhood of the mountain-ridges, along which
the Laplanders wander with their reindeer herds.
The Laplanders — at least, many of them — are still
believed to be as thievish, cunning, and skilled in

Ch. VL] LAPLANDERS AND DWARFS. 210

ivitchcraft as fonnerly. Everybody who wishes to
do BO, can easily convince himself that stories similar
to those which are told in the old Sagas about Finns,
dwarfs, and goblins, and which are still told by the
country people in the south of Sweden, of pigmies
and goblins who formerly dwelt in such and such
a mountain-district, are related even to this day by
the peasants in the northern parts of Norway of the
Finn Laplanders. The locality has been changed,
but the scene is the same, with the diflference only
which a different degree of civilisation must create.

It is possible that against a comparison between the
Laplanders of the present day and the dwarfs of
ancient times, the objection may be raised that the
Laplanders from time immemorial have been a nomad
race, leading a roving life with their reindeer herds ;
but that it is never related in the Sagas that the
dwarfs owned any reindeer. This objection would
only betray very little acquaintance with the real facts,
which are these, that the Laplanders, from being
originally only hunters and fishermen, did not be-
come nomads and owners of reindeer herds until
some centuries after the Christian era. Procopius
describes the migratory Finns, which evidently are
Laplanders, not as nomads, but as roving hunters.
Paulus Vamefredi, who lived in the eighth century,
speaks of them also as being only a tribe of hunters,
and Tacitus, who wrote his * Germania ' towards the
close of the first century, knew also that Fenni
(evidently the Finns of the Saga) were wild huntsmen,
and the most savage of all the tribes which had come

220 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. YT.

under his notice. The picture which he draws of
them is classical but exaggerated, and it is easy to see
that the materials were supplied to him by some tribe
hostile to the Fenni. He says : * Amongst the Fenni
great barbarism exists, and a disgusting poverty; they
possess neither arms, horses, nor dwellings. Their
food is herbs, their clothing skins, their bed the
ground. Their only dependence is on their arrows,
which, for want of iron, they arm with a bone point.
The chase is the support of the women as well as of
the men ; for they hunt in common, and divide the
spoil between them. Their children have no other
protection against wild beasts and storms than a hovel
made of the branches of trees. This is the resort of
youth, this is the receptacle of old age; yet they
consider this manner of living happier than groaning
over the plough, toiling in the erection of houses, or
subjecting their own fortunes and those of others to
the agitations of alternate hope and fear. Having
nothing to fear from man, nothing to hope from the
gods, they have attained that, which is most difficult
to gain, namely, that they have not even a wish.'*

We see thus, that the Fenni were even at that time
a tribe despised and detested by the Germanic race,
holding about the same relation to the Germans as
that which the Esquimaux of the present day hold to
the Indian tribes of North America.f (See Chap. V.)
We see, further, that they had no reindeer, that
they were not nomads, but subsisted solely by
their arrows (' sola in sagiitis spes '). So it was also

* Tacitus, Germ, xlvi. f See Note 11.

Ch.VI.] the dwarfs a LAPLAND RACE. 221

in Scandinavia previous to the immigrations of more
cultivated tribes. Consequently, the dwarfs, driven
out from amongst the people and leading an isolated
life, could not have had any reindeer. It is not
known with certainty in what century the Laplanders
here in Scandinavia first began their nomad life. We
find, however, from many passages in the earliest
history, and in the Sagas, that this people, even after
having been expelled from the southern and also from
the central part of Sweden by more powerful tribes,
enjoyed for a considerable period a much higher re-
putation (for instance, in central Norway) than now.
They had their own chiefs and their own popular assem-
blies. The daughters of their chiefs were occasion-
ally married to men of the Gothic race. The mother
of Oi'var Odd's father was a Lapland woman, for
Orvar was a son of Grim Lodikin, and he was a son
of the niece of the Finn chief Guse by Kettil Häng.
Kettil Häng seems also to have descended from the
same race, because he was the son of Halbjörn, sur-
named HalftroU (Half-goblin), which shows that his
mother was descended from a goblin (troll) race.
Harold Hårfager was, according to Sturleson, married
to Snäfrid,* the daughter of the Finn (Laplander?)
Svase.

* In the title of the Saga, Svase is called Jotun^ but in the Saga
itself Finne, That this last was the right name, we are led to infer
from his daughter Snäfrid being expressly called * the Finn-woman.'
The king, when he became aware of her witchcraft, was roused to such
violent anger, that he drove away her eons from him. We see by
her being able to practise * Seid,' that she was a Lapland woman, and
we also find by Thiodolfer's words to the king (that he ought not to

222 TIIE STONE AGE. [Ch. \^.

In addition to what I have already adduced in proof
of the dwarfs of the Saga being people, and of the
same race as the Laplanders, I will here add the
following. The dwarfs, or, as they are commonly
called in the Sagas, mountain-pigmies, or goblins, are
always represented as having formerly dwelt in moun-
tain-caverns, crags, or hillocks, i.e. earthen mounds,
mostly in solitary tracts, and generally in the vici-
nity of water. They were little and ugly, and were
of both sexes. They had children, and sometimes ser-
vants. They were believed to possess large trea-
sures, mostly silver and copper (' as rich as a goblin '
is still a proverb among the peasantry). They were
very thievish, and frequently visited the farm-houses
and country seats in order to steul, especially victuals,
ale, and such like. Sometimes they wanted to borrow
some things, and they then approached the houses of
the country-people, in the evening, to ask for them ;
the}^ never dared to pass the threshold, but stood
outside the house, calling in a loud voice for what
they wanted. They generally sent one or two of
their children on such an errand. If what they asked

despise his sons by Snäfrid, 'because tihey would willingly have had
a better and nobler lineage by the mother's side, if thou hadst let them')
that Snafrid belonged to a despised race. But the Jotna race was
not despised ; Odin himself married Skade, the daughter of a Jotne,
and through many of his chief warriors he endeavoured to befriend
this powerful race. It may, however, seem strange, that if Snafrid
was of the ugly Laplander race, she could so captivate or enchant
the powerful Harold Hårfager by her beauty, as is related in his
Saga. I may, however, observe, that the Lapland girls are not always
ugly ; on the contrary, even at the present time we occasionally
meet with some who are very pretty.

Ch. VI.] TIIE DWARFS A LAPLAND RACE. 223

for was given to them, it was always found lying early
in the morning, a few days after, in the same place,
and beside it, as a gratuity for the loan, a silver coin,
or something else of value. They held no social
intercourse with * human beings,' but only with each
other. They frequently gave feasts, celebrated wed-
dings, etc., to which the goblins from other moun-
tain-crags were invited. They were cowardly; they
shunned man and daylight.

Although, at first sight, all this may be regarded as
mere superstition, it has, nevertheless, its root far
down in the most remote antiquity, which can easily be
shown by ancient Sagas. The ancient original hatred
to the dwarfs (mountain-goblins), which manifests
itself in the oldest Sagas, telling how they were per-
secuted, shot through with red-hot arrows, cut to
pieces with axes, etc., has died away in the later
national Sagas. In them they figure mostly as a
degraded race, oft^n thievish and dangerous, often
generous and beneficent, but with whom, nevertheless,
nobody wished to become legally more closely united.
I infer from all this, that when the Indo- Germanic
people, now inhabiting the greatest part of the country,
settled here, there remained of the Lapland race in
the south of Sweden a few households, living isolated
in remote districts. It was only in Norway, and
especially in its more northern parts, that they still
formed a united people, having their chiefs and hold-
ing their popular meetings.

In order to complete the evidence, that the dwarfs
of the Saga and the pigmies of popular tradition

Ö24 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VL

belonged to the same race as the Laplanders of the
present day, I will here sketch the outlines of a
parallel between them : — *

1. The Laplanders are ugly and short, just as the
dwarfs of the Sagas are represented to be.

2. The Laplanders are clothed in a grey reindeer-
kirtle, and they wear a blue or red cap. The pigmies
are also so described in the Sagas. (Compare Thiele's
* Danske Folkesagn/ vol. i. page 122; vol. ii. page 3.)

3. The Laplanders, for instance, in Norway, speak
the language of the country very badly. When the
Norwegians imitate the Laplanders, it is done nearly
in the same way as when the Danish peasant imitates
the pigmy. (Thiele, vol. i. page 114.)

4. The Laplanders are cowardly, they are unfit to
be soldiers. The dwarfs of the Sagas are represented
as exceedingly cowardly. When they see a human
being, they try to steal away. A child can van-
quish them. An, a child twelve years old, compelled
the dwarf Lit to forge arrows for him.

5. The Laplanders are considered to be cunning
and deceitful. In Norway it was a saying, that if a
merchant wished to keep the custom of a Laplander,
he must cheat him a little, and let him know it at
parting. In order to be revenged, the Laplander
would return again; but if he had succeeded in

* I need scarcely observe, that the question here is less what the
Laplanders are, than what they are tonsidered to he, and how they
are represented by their neighbours. Whether they, in reality, have
all the faults which national hatred attributes to them, is not the
subject of this disquisition.

Ch. VI.] IDENTITY OF DWARFS WITH LAPLANDERS. 225

cheating the merchant, he would return no more.
This characteristic feature we find also in the dwarfs
of the Sagas. They are cunning, sly, deceitful, and
thievish.

6. The Laplanders are skilful; they are even able
to manufacture their own rifles. The skill of the
dwarfs as craftsmen is spoken of in many Sagas.

7. The Laplanders delight in collecting glittering
metals, especially silver. They do not willingly re-
ceive any other than silver coin. Many an old
avaricious Laplander is thought to have concealed
his silver in some out-of-the-way place amongst the
mountains, known only to himself, where he pays now
and then a visit. The dwarfs are also spoken of in
the Saga as being rich in silver.

8. It was thought that the dwarfs were skilled in
sorcery ; the same was believed of the Laplanders.
They were aware of this, and threatened to ' sätta gan
V (bewitch) those who did not give them what they
asked for. We hear also occasionally, in the south of
Sweden, Lappskoit^ etc., spoken of. The Laplanders
were, and are still, considered by many to be a weird
race of sorcerers.

9. The Lapland race is considered inferior to, and is
despised by, the Goths living in their neighbourhood.
In consequence of this hereditary hatred between the
tribes, a Swede or a Norwegian rarely marries a Lap-
land woman. Mr. P. Lsestadius, although a great friend
of the Laplanders, says : ' The races appear to be so
distinctly divided from each other, that it seems to be
repugnant even to physical nature to unite them.'

226 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VI.

10. The Laplanders therefore marry and hold feasts
only amongst themselves, as was the case with the
mountain-pigmies.

This comparison might be carried much farther,
and even into the smallest details ; but what I have
already adduced may suffice to prove that the dwarfs
of ancient times and the Laplanders of our own day
are identical.

Having proved that the dwarfs of the ancient Saga
were men, we will now endeavour to show the same
of the Jotnar^ or giants, of the ancient Saga, though
they belonged to a different race.

All nations make their own stature the scale by
which they measure the stature of others. Certain,
therefore, as it is, that it must have been a race of
low stature which gave the epithet of giants (Jotnar)
to another race, it is equally certain that it must
have been a tall race which gave to another the epi-
thet of dwarfs. Consequently, the giants need not have
been taller than people in general of Celtic, Germanic,
or Gothic races, in order to have been called giants
by a dwarf race such as the Laplanders or Esqui-
maux. We can prove this by examples. In Ikare-
sarsuk, in the district of Fredrikshaabs, in Greenland,
an ancient Saga stUl exists amongst the Greenlanders,
which evidently has some connection with the fall
and ruin of the ancient Norwegian colony there.
Thus, it is related that a Greenlander, by name
Poviak, had once upon a time come up amongst the
mountains, and there met accidentally with two

Ch. VI.] 'JOTNAR/ OR GIANTS. 227

women of supernatural stature, who lived in the
interior of the country. They seized hold of him
and carried him along with them. After having
lived with them for some time, it happened one day
that they all three came down to the seashore toge-
ther, at the moment when several travelling Green-
landers had landed. Poviak called out to his country-
men, who hastened to his assistance. The women
tried to escape, but only one of them succeeded in
getting away ; the other was taken, and carried oflF
by the Greenlanders. They took her on board one of
their women's boats, but she was so tall and strong,
that every one of her movements threatened to upset
the boat. She thenceforth resided amongst the Green-
landers, until she gave birth to a child, which cost
her her life.*

This national Saga amongst the Greenlanders, in
connection with the tale of the Esquimaux, referred
to before (page 208), about the 'gigantic' English-
men in North America, proves, beyond a doubt, that
the Sagas of giants have originated amongst a race of
short stature. And as w^e know that there never
has been found in Europe any other dwarfish race
of people than the Laplanders, it foUows that the
notions about, and the epithet of, Jotnar (giants)
have emanated from them ; and since we know, be-
sides, that there never has existed in Europe a race
of larger stature than the Goths, Svear, and those
whom we in Sweden call Finns (^alias Quanes), it fol-
lows that these races (either one or all of them) were

• Nordisk Tidskrijlför Oldkyndighetj voL ii. page 324.

228 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VI.

the Joinar of the polar race ; and hence follows one
circumstance which seems not to have been noticed
hitherto, namely, that all our ancient Sagas about
^Jotnar^ have originally emanated from the dwarf race
— the Laplanders. But if such be the case, then there
must still exist amongst the Laplanders Sagas about
Jotnar in which the dwarf peoples have expressed their
opinion of their gigantic conquerors, just as the notions
of these latter about the Laplanders are illustrated by
their Sagas about the dwarfs. According to the accounts
of Mr. Laestadius* there are still a great many giant
Sagas current amongst the Laplanders. The funda-
mental features are the same in them all ; the jotna
(giant) is there described as being unwieldy, large and
strong, but awkward and stupid when compared with
the cunning Laplander, who, of course, arrogates the
epithet, the honour, and the dignity of ' human being '
(man), and who always cheats the simple giant into
whose hands he happens to fall.f It does not follow,
that because the giant in the Lapland Sagas is repre-
sented as being a cannibal, he was one in reality,
but merely that the childishly timid Laplander had
a panic terror of him. J The giant in the Lapland
Saga is called stallo^ or jatton^ and he who dupes him
is called *man.' This latter is frequently a cun-
ning boy, who is called * Askovis' — an epithet which,

• Fortsättning af Journ.^ page 460.

f The Greenlander also ridicules the European on the sly, and
considers his manners awkward and simple. What the opinion of
the Laplander is now upon this subject I am not aware.

} Compare, however, Nord. forny, Saga^ vol. ii. page 107.

Ch. VI.] 'JOTNAR/ OR GIANTS. 229

according to LaBStadius, has been imported by settlers.
Such an Askovis, whom we will call simply a I^ap-
lander, had once fallen into the hands of a giant.
One day, when they were abroad together, the Lap-
lander pretended that he saw a great many things
happening at a great distance, of which he informed
the giant. The giant, who of course could see nothing
of all this, wondered what made the Laplander so
clear-sighted. The Laplander made him believe that
one became so by pouring melted lead in one's eyes.
The stupid giant believes it. After becoming blind
from the cure, he endeavours to catch the Laplander,
who, however, deceives him, and gets away from him
in the same manner as Ulysses from the cave of
Polyphemus.*

It is the same in all our giant Sagas; inferior
weakness vanquishing superior physical force by cun-
ning. This fundamental idea pervades aU giant
Sagas, amongst what people soever they may be
current ; and if we consider the matter more closely,
we shall find this trait of character psychologically
true, founded upon human nature, and therefore
common to all.

The reason why such giant and dwarf Sagas, so
very simUar, should hay. Len invented amon^t 80
many races diflFering so materially one from the other,
is no doubt this, that each of these races has occa-
sionally, in the course of time, while in a state of
barbarism, come into hostile contact with some other

• The story "will be found in Lsestadius, Fortsättning af Joum,^
page 463.

2^0 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VI.

race, either larger or smaller than itself. We may
safely conclude that this must have been the case,
not only in Europe, but in all quarters of the world,
because races of divei*se statures are found in them
all, and these races were of course formerly fiir less
mixed than they are now. And we may be sure,
that where such hostile meetings did take place.
Sagas more or less resembUng ours must also have
arisen.

1 have shown, on page 217, § 1, how dwarf Sagas
have been invented, and on page 208 1 have shown, by
historical facts, how the English in North America
have given rise to giant Sagas amongst the Esqui-
maux dwarf people there. Something similar has
occurred in the Old World.

How easily an excited imagination can create
exaggerated forms, is proved by the following his-
torical fact. When Moses was wandering through
the desert with the Israelites, who went out of Egypt
after having lived there in a state of bondage, and
when arrived in the desert of Paran, he sent spies
into Canaan, in order to procure information of the
fertility of the country, the number of its inhabitants,
the strength of its towns, etc. The spies returned,
after the lapse of forty days, with the report that,
amongst others, there were also living * Anakims' (the
children of Anak), ' and,' added the messengers, * we
were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we
were in their sight.'

Hearing this report, *all the congregation lifted up
their voice, and cried ; and the people wept that night.

Cn. VI.] EVIDENCE FROM SCRIPTURE HISTORY. 231

And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses
and against Aaron;'* and they were so frightened,
that they wished to return to Egyptian bondage
rather than face these formidable giants.

Thus much Holy Writ tells us ; but what it does
not say, and what, nevertheless, we may take for
granted, is that in a rude and timorous people,
where such a foolish panic jis created by the mere
mention of a tall race, imagination must also create
exaggerated and ludicrous images, and these, being
handed down from generation to generation, became
ultimately the giant- Sagas of ancient times. Several
passages in the Bible show that the Anakims were
looked upon as giants. / And the land of the children
of Ammon also was accounted a land of giants ; giants
dwelt therein in old times.' They were *a people
great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims.'f In the
desert of the Moabites * the Emims dwelt in times
past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the
Anakims.' J

These giants, the Anakims, were the same people
as the Philistines, and of Phoenician origin. Joshua
vanquished them several times, and destroyed them
in the interior mountain districts of Hebron, Debir,
and Anab (Josh. xi. 21), and they remained only in
the coast districts, in Gaza, Gath, and A8hdod.§ Thus,
then, Joshua extirpated the giants of Canaan, as Asa
Thor did those of Scandinavia.

♦ Num. xiiL 33; xiv. 1,2. f I>«^t- '^^ 20, 21.

} Deut. ii. 10. § Philistine cities.

2^2 THE STONE AGR [Ch. VI-

The same scene which took place amongst the
Israelites on the borders of Canaan, out of fear of the
Anakim giants, was enacted in the Roman camp, when
Caesar marched against the giant people, the Ger-
mans, under Ariovistus. When Caesar had arrived at
Besan9on, a report was spread by Gauls * and mer-
chants throughout the Roman army of the gigantic
size of the Germans. This caused such a panic
amongst the officers and soldiers, that many of the
former returned home, under one pretence or an-
other, and those who did not dare to ask for furlough,
* wept and groaned in their tents.' They all made their
wills ; terror seized even veteran soldiers and chiefs.f
It is scarcely possible to read the historical account
of these events without feeling convinced that they
would give rise, amongst the lower classes of people,
to all kinds of exaggerated Sagas ; and, knowing this,
it is also impossible to read Sagas about giants with-
out seeing that they are founded upon some such
occurrence.

From what has now been said, it is evident that
the Sagas about giants and dwarfs (which epithets
are relative, because the one could not exist without
the other) are not a mere play of fancy, but have an
historical foundation, although a frightened imagina-
tion has exaggerated and clothed them in the garb of
fiction.

♦ This does not prove that the Gauls were a very large people,
at least not like the Germans, although taller than the Romans.
(CfiBS. de Bell. Gall. ii. 30.)

t Caes. de Bell OalL i. 39.

Ch. VI.] GIANT AND DWARF SAGAS. 239

And consequently : —

1. The Philistines were the giants of the Israel-
ites, and these were the dwarfs of the former.

2. The Cimbrians were the giants of the Greek
adventurers, and these were the dwarfs of the former.*

3. The Germans and the Celts were the giants of
the Romans, and these were their dwarfs.

4. Icelanders, Kormans, Englislimen, and others,
were the giants of the Greenland and North American
Esquimaux, and these latter were their shrälingar^
i.e. dwarfs, etc.

We can easily see in every giant and dwarf Saga
whether it has emanated from the dwarf or from the
tall race; because the race amongst which it origi-
nated always styles itself ' man' (human being), and
considers itself only to be of the proper size; the
strange race is always described, when the Saga has
been invented by the large size, as being wretchedly
small and weak, and when by the small people, as
being enormously bulky and strong. The stronger
race boasts of its strength, and treats the weaker one
with insolent contempt : thus Thor kicked the dwarfs
into Balder's funeral pile; the Anakims of Canaan
despised the Israelites as grasshoppers ; and the Gaul
looked down with contempt upon the smaller-sized
Roman.f

* Odyss. ix. 105-230 ; 231-566. Dubois de Montpéreux has
shown that the Cyclopes, on the coast of the Bosphoru», pointed out
by Homer as frightful giants, hurling huge pieces of rock at the
Grecian ships, were a gigantic nomad race of Cimbrians, and the
Greeks adventurers comparable to the Vikings of the North.

t Cses. de BelL OalL ii. 30.

234 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VI.

Those, on the other hand, who in physical strength
are inferior to their gigantic oppressors, avenge them-
selves by calling them awkward and stupid, and ar-
rogate to themselves greater intellect and cunning:
thus, Ulysses in the cave of Polyphemus ; thus, the
Roman smiling at the simplicity of the Gaul, when
he makes it the subject of a proverb;* thus, the
Greenlander, who, behind his back, smiles at the awk-
ward and simple European;! thus, *Askovis,' and,
indeed, eveiybody who, under the name of 'man,'
appears in a giant Saga.

With regard to the giant-s (Jotnar) of the Scandi-
navian Saga, they belonged to a gigantic tribe who
worshipped the god Thor.

We know that the statues of the gods in the heathen
temples were painted wooden images, clothed in their
costumes, and provided with their attributes. Thor's
figure was very large, J and he had a red beard; he
was frequently called the Red-bearded One^ or Red
Beard^ by friend as well as by foe. As we may as-
sume with certainty that the god was a representa-
tive of the people amongst whom his worship first
arose (because every people creates its god after its
own image), we have, then, here two ethnological
marks of recognition for ascertaining the origin of
Thor. Thor's people were of large stature, and had
red hair and beard, and consequently blue eyes.

• Camd. Brit.^ page 2.

f According to the verbal statement of a Dane who has resided
a considerable time in Greenland.

X Olof the Holy^a iSaga, chap, cxviii. and others.

Ch. VI.] THOR WORSHIP. 235

According to authentic accounts, there are still
many Finnish tribes dwelling in the interior of
Russia, and these are divided into two main branches,
of which one has red hair and blue eyes, and much
resembles Finns (Quanes) and Esthonians,^ namely,
the Björmer (Permians), Siräns, the Obi Ostiaks,f
Votiaks, and Tschuwaschers ; J and what, in connection
herewith, deserves our attention, is that, at any rate
amongst some of these tribes, God is even to this day
called Thor. Pallas informs us, in ' Zoographia Rosso-
Asiatica,' vol. i. page 529, that the swallow is called
by the Beresow Ostiaks Torom sischki^ which signifies
God's bird, and at Irtis it is called Toromvoi^ God's
animal. Erman relates, in his ' Reise um die Welt,*
vol. i. page 700, that the Ostiaks, which are a tall, well-
built, handsome people, call God Toiium (page 677) or
Torum (page 699), which means with them the Su-
preme Being. Also the Votiaks are tall, broad-shoul-
dered, and powerful men, with hair and beard red
(page 253). The Tschuwaschers call God Tora^ and
the god of thunder and weather of the Esthonian
Finns was rara.§

Hence we may be induced to suppose that the name
of Thor, and his worship, were introduced into Scan-
dinavia, and spread amongst the inhabitants, by some

* Portraits of Estbonians are given bj Krnse in bis Necrolivontca.

t Ostiaks and Yugnls, wbo dwell on botb sides of tbe Ural
mountain-cbain, are of tbe same original race, but tbe one is dark
and tbe otber red-baired. (Pricbard, vol. iii. page 214.)

X Rask, Om den nordiske Sprogs oprindehe^ pages 96, 97, after
Dobrowsky.

§ Geij. Sv. Rik. Iläfd.^ vol. i. page 290, note 3.

230 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VL

Finnish tribe; but we may likewise remember that
Thor was also worshipped by the Goths, and that the
national tales relate that he had conflicts with the
diminutive aborigines anterior to the time of Odin.
To this class of prehistoric Sagas belong also all Sagas
of Thor, still living on the lips of the common people
in the south of Sweden, and all relating to the
period preceding the introduction of the Walhalla
worship in Scandinavia.

In all our national Sagas about Thor, his conflicts
with goblins and pigmies are therefore related, and as
a remembrance thereof, thunder and lightning are still
called Thordön in the whole of the south of Sweden.
When a child, I often heard old people say, when
there was a thunderstorm, that Thor was driving his
carriage through the clouds, striking the goblins with
his lightning.* When the thunder was rolling con-
tinuously, they said : *Now he f is in a hurry to chase
the goblins;' and the goblins were always imagined to
be pigmies dwelling in mountains, in hollow trees,
earthen mounds, etc. Formerly, it was proverbial
that ' if there were to be no thunderstorms, the world
would be destroyed by goblins.' When I was a child,
I often heard old people say : ' It thunders much less
now than formerly, because most of the goblins are
now killed.' How small the goblins, which Thor was
chasing, were sometimes represented to be, we can
infer from the following. When a violent thunder-

* I have never heard it said that he slew giants,
f Without mentioniDg Thor*s name, the people merely said * he,*
or * he, the old one.'

Ch. VI.] WALHALLA WORSHIP. ' 237

Btorm was raging, and the harvest-labourers were
overtaken by showers of rain, the peasant-women did
not venture to cover their heads with the skirts of
their gowns (as they always did in rain), for fear that
the goblins should hide themselves therein. This
did occasionally happen, but the woman had then
been warned by some strange voice, and had dropped
the skirt of her gown, when the goblin, falling out,
rolled like a ball of thread along the field, and was
instantly killed by lightning.

When the Walhalla worship was introduced into
Scandinavia, the Thor worship was the one most gene-
rally spread, although not the only religion.* But it
was politically important and prudent on the part of
the Asar,f a princely priest caste, who settled hereon
the borders of the Malar Lake, and who had brought
with them Odin's Walhalla worship, to unite in
themselves all the gods of the country, in order to be
enabled to rule all the different tribes.J The more
ancient gods of the country were therefore adopted as
Odin's sons. And as the Goths, who were worship-
pers of Thor,§ were a numerous, probably the most

* There was also a Baal-Balder worabip.

f Under this name I comprehend those priests yrho introduced
the Walhalla worship of Odin, and of whom I shall say more in
the treatise on the Iron Age.

I The Romans did the same; the gods of the conquered nations
were received amongst their own gods.

§ Demonstrable by the historically true traditions. (See below.)
That the Thor worship is very ancient, and arose amongst a people
who were in a low stage of civilisation, we can infer from Thorns
war weapon, which was a hammer (* malleus sax.'') or club {clava

Sdd THE STONE AGE. [Ch.\T. >

numerous people,* Thor was pronounced to be the
first-born of Odin; f and in order to flatter the power-
ful tribe whose god he was, his image was placed in
the chief seat in Odin's principal temple in Upsala,
where Odin J (the principal god of the race which
had last immigrated) stood on one side, and the
Vendian god Fricco, or Freyr, on the other. §

Many passages in the ancient Sagas seem to inti-
mate that the Åsa race, immediately on its arrival in
the valley of the Malar, allied itself with the powerful
Jotna families, Niord^ Odin^ F^^y^ and others, were
married to Jotna maidens. The Jotna women were

sax,) ; because the club (the hammer is but a different kind of
club) is older than tlie sword, and even older than the axe. It is
the patoo'patoo of the savage ; it is a war weapon made of a log of
a tree, thicker at one end than at the other. Hercules is thus
represented exactly like a savage — naked, with the root of a tree as
a weapon, and a wild animal^s skin thrown over his shoulder.

• Procopius, de Bello Got, ii. 15.

I According to the £dda.

f Odin was the god of the Indo-Germanic race, whose name,
with various pronunciations, appears amongst many ancient people
of this race. The priests of the Odin worship were called Astr^
Osser, Asar, etc., and the most ancient known place of that worship
was called Asgård, or Ashof. Tacitus mentions an Asburg (Aschi-
burgium), in the south of Germany, dating from such a remote
period, that by some it was thought to have been founded by
Ulysses, who lived more than twelve hundred years before Tacitus
{Germ. iii.). It is scarcely possible to refer this Asburg with any
degree of probability to the Odin described by Sturleson. It may
rather be assumed that the Odin worship existed, and was spread in
the south of Germany, many centuries earlier than it was reformed
into Walhalla worship and introduced into Scandinavia by the
Herulean invasion of settlers there in the sixth century after Christ.
I shall treat of this in my work on the Iron Age.

§ Adamus Bremens, vol. i. page 25.

Ch.VL] THOR WORSHIP. 239

beauties of a fair complexion, with golden (light-red)
hair and blue eyes, as, for instance, Gerda, the daugh-
ter of the Jotun Gymer, and Skade, the daughter of
the Jotun Thjasse, and others.

Several Norwegian princes, aware, from authentic
family traditions,* that they derived their descent,
through father and mother, from the Jotun race,
remained, therefore, always faithful to the Jotna god
Tltor^ and sacrificed to him, although, as princes, they
did not disdain the delights and glories of Wal-
halla.

The Norwegian Hlade-Jarls, who, from their mo-
ther's side, traced their descent to Skade, daughter
to * the pomp-loving Jotne Thjasse,* sacrificed there-
fore mostly to Thor. The powerful Hakon Jarl, who
was chiefly devoted to the Jotun worship,f had a
temple in which, with other Jotna gods and god-
desses (amongst which the statues of the witch-
sisters Thorgerdr Haurgabruds and Yrpas),J stood

* Before the art of writing was known in this country, tradition
must have been far more livelj, determinate, and clear than after-
wards. The art of writing is the death of tradition, and we see proof
of this amongst our own country-people.

f When it is said of Hakon Jarl that the goblins made a boast of
his friendship, it is evident that by goblins are meant the same as
the descendants of the Jotnar, who remained in the country. The
name troll (goblin) is never given to any man or woman of the
Saga relating to the Asa race ; it was given only to the foreign
tribes who were looked upon as conquered, for trolly or trolly seems
to be the same as thrall^ and signifies serfy because prisoners of war
were made slaves. Thus the name of Slavonians, Slavians, signifies
in most European languages serf or thrall,

J Her temple in Norway. See Urda^ vol. iii. page 7. It was
to this, his guardian-goddess, to whom Hakon Jarl offered up his

240 THE STONE AGE. [Ch.V1.

also the statue of Thor, ornamented with golden
rings and placed on a chariot,* consequently the
ancient Oku Thorr.

Nor could the Odin doctrine gain ground amongst
the bulk of the people; because this doctrine, with its
princely Walhalla, was not qualified ever to become a
popular religion.f The Walhalla doctrine of Odin
was therefore adopted chiefly in Svealand, and, as it
appears, also by some royal courts, related to the so-
called Asar^ in other provinces of Sweden, Denmark,
and Norway. For these traced their descent up to
' the high gods ; ' but the bulk of the people, and a
few princes in Norway and Gothland, continued to
remain worshippers of Thor.

Therefore the Tho7' worship was at the introduction
of the Christian religion more widely disseminated
amongst the common people, and consequently more
difficult to exterminate ; and thence it also follows,
that the traces of paganism which are still to be found
in Gothland and Norway are principally the remnants
of Thor worship.

Thurs-day (in Swedish the day of Thor) was still,
about a hundred years ago, considered in certain
parts of the country as a kind of holiday, J on which
no serious or heavy work was to be done. When a

son Erling, then seven years old, in order to obtain a victory over
the Joms- Vikings (Olof Tryggva's Saga, Schoning Norg HisL
vol. iii. page 269. Compare Urda, page 8.)

* Compare Geijer, pages 282-283,

f It was more properly an aristocratic military religion, and the
life in their heavenly kingdom (Walhalla) was that of a barrack. .

J This I was told by old people in my childhood.

Ch. VI.] SUPERSTITIONS RESPECTING THURSDAY. 241

child, I remember having occasionally seen, in the
south of Sweden, some old woman who would never
churn butter or spin on a Thursday.

Many ancient Sagas of warnings given by the old
one with the beard not to desecrate Thursday-eve by
any kind of work, are told. This was evidently a
remnant of Thor worship. On the other hand, all
kinds of pagan superstitions and sorceries were to
be practised on the Thursday, in order to make them
efficient. On a Thursday, people were to go to the
necromancer, in order to see in a pail of water the
face of the thief who had robbed them ; on a Thurs-
day (Maundy-Thursday), all witches rode to * Blå-
kulla ' on a broomstick ; on a Thursday morning, he
who suffered from toothache had to walk silently into
the forest, carrying with him a nail with which he
had to pick his teeth, after which the nail was to be
stuck into a tree, when the toothache would be cured ;
he who was born on a Thursday could see spectres,
and so on. All this was evidently a remnant of Thor-
ism^ and such was the case in Gothland. It seems
to have been much the same in Norway. Finn
Magnusen relates* that the peasants in certain moun-
tain districts in Norway, even as late as the close of
last century, used to preserve stones of a round form,
and reverence them in the same manner as their
pagan ancestors used to worship their idols. They
washed them every Thursday evening, smeared them
before the fire with butter, or some other grease, then

• Annaler far Nordisk Oldhjndighet, 1838-1889, page 133.

242 niE STONE AGE. [Ch. VI.

dried them and laid them in the seat of honour upon
fresh straw ; at certain times of the year, they were
steeped in ale, and all this under the supposition that
they would bring luck and comfort to the house.*
Such a renmant of Thor worship in Norway, in those
more modern times, I consider to be very remarkable
and illustrative.

Even in the ceremonies of our Christian Church
there are still, here and there, traces which seem to
imply that the Thursday has long been looked upon
as a pagan day, on which no Christian religious cere-
monies of any importance ought to be performed.
This is still the case, at all events in the rural dis-
tricts in the south of Sweden. On a Thursday no
Christian funerals are held, no weddings, no baptisms
celebrated, and so on, because nobody would ever
think of requesting the performance of these cere-
monies; but if asked the reason why they do not
wish them to be performed, they are at a loss for an
answer : they merely say that it is not customary,

• Finn Magnusen, who is perfectly correct in believing that the
pagan ceremonies of the peasantry were Thor worship, is also of
opinion that the Thor worship must have consisted in stone worship,
because these amulets were of stone. This conclusion is evidently
too hasty ; they were not worshipped because they were of stone,
but because they were heathen amulets. Had they been of wood,
or metal, or of bone, the peasants would have reverenced them
equally. It was only accidentally that they were of stone. The
Sagas mention no stone images of Thor, but of wood when of a
large size, and of bone when small. Halfred Vandrada- Skald was
accused by Rolf before Olof Trygvardson of having, after being
christened, made oiFerings in secret, and of having Thor* 8 image of
hone in his possession. Miiller, Saga^ vol. iii. page 276.

Ch. VI.1 SAGAS FOUNDED ON HISTORY. 24S

and nobody cares to find out the origin of this ancient
prejudice.

I have mentioned this to show that our Sagas are
founded on history. Most of the Sagas belong, how-
ever, to a less ancient period, or to that part of the
subject which relates to the Iron Age, which I pur-
pose to describe in a future work.

B 9

244 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. \^I.

CHAPTER VII.

ON THE PROBABLE CONDITION OP SCANDINAVIA AT THE

ABBIVAIi OF THE FIB8T PEOPLE.

To form a clear idea on this subject, let us cast a
retrospective glance on the far more ancient state of
this part of the earth after the glacial period, when
it had been entirely covered by ice, and was in about
the same condition as Greenland and Spitzbergen are
at present. We meet with unmistakable traces of
such a state in innumerable places in our peninsula.
They consist in the granite rocks being smooth,
polished, and often furrowed, the ground being in
many places bestrewn with more or less colossal
blocks, which usually have their origin in far distant
places, and which are themselves sometimes smoothly
polished and grooved, and here and there lying in
heaps, so that we plainly recognise in them the re-
mains of moraines.

We may assume that this fearful destruction has
occurred during the present organic period of creation ;
but we cannot with the least probability even guess
at the immeasurable space of time which has since
elapsed, nor do we know whether, previous to this
period of destruction, there were human beings in the
north of Europe. It is certain that similar changes have

Ch. VII.] PROBABLE CAUSE OF PHYSICAL CHANGES. 245

likewise taken place in other countries, and indeed,
apparently, all over the northern hemisphere ; but we
think we have reason to suppose that they have hap-
pened in different places at different times, and that
no new creation was required to refurnish a part of
the earth, thus depopulated, with animals and plants.

The causes of the beginning, continuation, decline,
and end of this period of destruction may have been
manifold, and have by some been sought for in astro-
nomical circumstances : for our part, we think it suf-
ficiently accounted for by a phenomenon, which is
still continued in our days, namely, the oscillation of
\the earths crust. For if we consider it possible for
the motion which is now going on (and which consists
in the rising of the northern parts and the sinking of
the southern of our Scandinavian peninsula) to be
continued without interruption during a sufficiently
long time, the same period of destruction would
again indisputably return ; the whole country would
be changed into an ice-field, where everything that
has Ufe would perish.

To prove this, we have only to call to mind that
the atmosphere around our earth is cold, and that the
heat which is given off from the earth diminishes as
we ascend, until, at an inconsiderable distance above
its surface, we arrive at what is called the snow-line^
above which is perpetual snow and ice. This line has
been imagined to be in the shape of a parabola round
the earth, from the one pole to the other, so that its
position is highest above the equator, and sinks to
the surface of the sea towards the poles.

240 THE STONE AGR [Ch. VH.

From this it is evident that if the rising of the
country, which is now going on, were to continue
constantly until a sufficiently large portion of the
surface of the earth would lie above the snow-line;
and if not only that portion, but likewise surrounding
parts, were thus changed into ice-fields; a state of
things would arise resembling that of which we find
the above-named traces belonging to an age long past.
But before the motion can reach to this height it may
cease, and become a return in an opposite direction,
as has evidently been the case once before. For,
during the latter part of the ice-period, the northern
regions, which were high up, had sunk down deep
below the surface of the sea, and we consider our^
selves likewise authorised to suppose that, after this
motion had reached to a certain extent, the opposite,
which still continues, again commenced ; so that when
the northern parts, which then were sunk in the deep,
had again risen nearly to the surface of the sea, those
shell-fish which live in shallow water collected on
them. Moreover, inasmuch as the water after the
ice-period must still have had a very low degree of
temperature, these moUusca were of those varieties
and species which now live only in the waters on the
icy shores of Spitzbergen and Greenland.

By degrees, after the ice on the surface of the sea
had melted and the temperature of the water had
become milder, other mollusca which required water
less cold made their way into our seas ; at the same
time the land rose more and more, until at length the
water of the sea had the same temperature as it

Cn. VIL] FOSSIL SHELLS. 247

has now, and in it were produced the same moUusca
that are now living in the sea round our shores.

That the circumstance here described has taken place,
we shall find if we examine those shell-banks which
are met with in various places of the north-western
part of Sweden and Norway, frequently to a height
of several hundred feet. We shall then discover that
those species which are in the highest shell- banks
belong to an icy climate, and that their fellow-species
now live in the cold zone of Spitzbergen; but if
we descend the sides of the mountain to shell-banks
lower down, we shall find that these are composed
of species which belong to a more temperate water ;
and finally, we meet with those that still live on our
coasts.*

That a gulf had passed firom the Arctic Ocean
across Finland, which was then the bottom of the
ocean, down to Gothland, or farther, we think we
may conclude from the fact, that Professor Erman
has met with fossil shells in the boulder-clay of the
coasts of the Baltic, in the central part of Sweden,
which are now seen alive only at Spitzbergen;
amongst others, for instance, Yolida pygmcea.jf

* This circumstance has been observed both in Scandinavia and
Scotland. Professor Sven Loven reported it to the Academy of
Sciences at Stockholm in 1839, and more fully in the Review of the
same Academy, 1846, page 254. Mr. Smith has observed the same
in Scotland. See Memoirs of the Wemerian Society^ vol. viii.
chap. i. page 49.

I In the shell-banks at Uddevalla the following species have been
found : Pecten islandicus, Area glacialia, Terehratula SpitzbergensiSj
Yolida arcticaj Margareta vndata, &c., defined by S. Ix)vén and
O. Forell.

248 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VIL

Moreover, Arctic Crustacea are still to be met
with alive at the bottom of the deep lakes Wemier
and Wetter, which proves that these lakes were once
connected with the gulf that formerly passed down
from the Arctic Ocean.*

After the northern part of the peninsula had by
degrees risen a little, but was still uninhabitable, and
the southern part was higher than now, this latter
appears then first to have become qualified to receive
plants, animals, and finally mankind, from the south-
ern parts which had not simultaneously been visited by
a glacial period. And it is not difficult to determine
with a high degree of probability in what order these
immigrations took place.

Plants must have first appeared, beginning with
those which need for their support the least amount
of black humus, and afterwards the othei's in pro-
portion as they required more of it. Of animals,
the phytivorous first presented themselves when vege-
tation had so far increased as to afibrd them the
necessary subsistence; then came the carnivorous, in
order to subsist on the former ; and at last, man, who
at first could subsist as well on the roots and fruits
as on the flesh of animals, while clothing himself with
the skins of the latter.

Then, and long after man had settled in the south
of Sweden, the southern part of that country was
connected by land with the continent of North Ger-

* S. Loven, Review Ac. Sc, 1861, page 285. These Crustacea
are Mi/sis relicta, Gammarus loricatus, Idothea entomon^ Pontopereia
affinis.

Cn. VII.] STATE OF SWEDEN. 249

many, and those animals whose migratory habits lead
them to wander from place to place, roved at large
during certain seasons from the one country to the
other. In this manner the reindeer, the Ure-ox, the
bison, etc., wandered from Germany into Scania^ and
back again at will.

If we now take a retrospective view of the state of
the south of Sweden during this period, it will appear
to have been as follows. The ground was as yet
uncultivated, the whole country covered with forests,
lakes, and marshes (bogs). In the forests wandered
stately elks and stags, gigantic Ure-oxen and bisons,
while each of these restricted its wanderings to its
own district.* In swampy places roved herds of wild
boars of large size, and from the mountain districts
of the southerly continent immigrated from time to
time flocks of wild reindeer.f In the rivers beavers

* I have never yet seen skeletons of Ure-oxen and bisons found
in the same peat -bogs; thej were deadly enemies, and there is
still an unconquerable enmity between the tame cattle and the
bison of Lithuania. As yet, it has not been po&dble to make a
bison-bull breed with a tame cow. The former will immediately
gore the latter to death.

f The reindeer annually makes extensive peregrinations. (See
Blasius, JReise in Husaland, vol. i. page 265.) The reindeer,
skeletons of which are met with in the peat-bogs of Scania, belong
to quite a different race from those of Lapland. They had no doubt
immigrated to Scania from some more southerly part, and may
possibly belong to the same race as the reindeer, which during Csesar's
time still lived in the Hercynian forest. No zoologist who reads what
Csesar states in the twenty -sixth chapter of DeBello Oalltco, lib. vi.,
of that animal which has ' cervi figura^^ with horns that were longer
than those of any other animal that he had seen, and from the upper
end of which, as if from the palm of a hand, branches (points) extended,

./,

2Ö0 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. VII.

built their ingenious houses, and in the lakes, which
abounded with fish, were river-turtles (Emys lutaria)
and enormously large pike, skeletons of which are
occasionally found.

The first people that came to the country seem to
have had their haunts in the thick forests and along
the shores of lakes and water-courses, in which they
practised fishing and hunting, then their only means
of subsistence; here, therefore, we find the imple-
ments they have left behind.

That this first migration of people to the southern
parts of Scandinavia took place at a period far removed
from us, we find from the fact that human productions
and bones of the cave-bear ( UrsiLs spelceus^ PL XI. figs.
223, 224) are met with together, in our oldest peat-
bogs, even in those that lie under the Jara-Wall, of
which we shall speak farther on, and consequently pre-
vious to the phenomenon that threw up this ridge.*

and the female of which had horns like the male, etc., can indeed doubt
that Caesar had seen at least one horn of a reindeer, and by misun-
derstanding the language, believed that the animal had but oue,
as likewise that irom the same cause he had obtained but a coq-
iused idea of the animal itself. That the reindeer had not by
degrees proceeded from Scania up towards Lapland, is also proved
by there never having been found a skeleton nor even a bone of a
reindeer in any of the provinces that are situated between Scania
and Lapland. The Lapland reindeer have, in a comparatively much
more recent period, crossed over Finland to the Norwegian mountain-
ridge, where they are now mostly to be found.

* That the time when man first made his appearance here in the
North was far distant from the present, we can conclude from the
following reasons : — ^Firstly. Human implements have been found
with bones of the cave-bear ( Urms spelanis)^ and yet this was by
no means the first mammal that came to this country, it liaving been

Ch. VII.] UNCERTAINTY AS TO TIME. 261

But we do not know what space of time has since
elapsed, and as yet we have found no means of ascer-
taining it, even within thousands of years. We have
certainly found, about one hundred feet above the
present surface of the sea, a couple of human skeletons
in a shell-bank which lay under the surfEice of the sea
at the time when it was formed, and when the two
persons were drowned; but we do not know what
time was required to raise the shell-bank and the
mountain on which it lies to their present height.
For although the motion of the earth's crust is now
taking place uninterruptedly, we must not take it
for granted that it has always been so ; on the con-
trary, we have reason to think that the motion, at the
commencement of the rising, took place suddenly, and
at long intervals ; and that during these long intei-vals
it may have continued uniformly and slowly. As a
reason for this supposition, I may mention that on
the sides of the mountains in the district of Bohus,
we meet with unmistakable marks of beaches lying
horizontally one above the other, at long distances,
and that barnacles and other productions of the sea
remain even to the present day entire on the stones

preceded by ruminants^ with which came man. For he probably
made his appearance before the large beasts of prej. Secondly.
Human works occur in the submarine peat-bogs, and are there-
fore older than the great phenomenon which separated Scania from
Pomerania. Thirdly. Some arrows and spears have been altogether
reduced to a soil white substance. I have seen several such. Compare
PI. XIII. fig. 242. See also Revue dea JDevx Mondes, avril 1867,
page 645 : ^ Ces silex dont la patine blanchåtre denote Texcessive
antiquité ; * therefore still more those which are entirely reduced
to a chalky substance. See Note 12.

252 THE STONE AGE. [Ch.VII.

of these beaches, which would not have been the case
had not the shore, on which they grew, been, with
them, quickly raised to a height where the dashing of
the waves could not reach them; otherwise they
would have been crushed by the stones of the shore.
These considerations caused me to believe that the
elevations which have occurred in other places have
also been sudden. Hence I am led to explain the
following phenomenon.

Along the coast of the Baltic, from Ystad to the
part between Trelleborg and Falsterbo, there lies a
ridge, in many places more or less imperfect, con-
sisting of gravel and stones, called the Jära- Wall ; ia
some places it is high and broad, in others, sevei^al
such walls seem to lie behind and above each other,
which proves that the cause which raised them has
been several times repeated. Under the ridge there
are in several places peat-bogs, which lie below the
surface of the sea.

How these ridges have been produced may perhaps
long remain undecided. For my part, and taking
into consideration several well-ascertained facts rela-
ting to this subject, I can only conceive these ridges
to have originated in one way, namely, by a violent
momentary motion in the waters of the Baltic, caused
by a simultaneous sinking of the southern and rising
of the northern part of the surface of the earth under
this sea.*

* It will be remembered that geology, as well as history, records
several sudden risings and sinkings of the earth's crust. Amongst
other instances of rising is the following : — On November 19, 1822,

Ch. VII.] GEOLOGICAL AND ZOOLOGICAL PROOFS. 263

It can be made manifest, both by geological and
zoological proofs, that, during a very ancient period,
a broad gulf passed from the Arctic Ocean at Arch-
angel over Finland, which then was the bottom of
the sea, down to about Gothland, or Öland, and that
Sweden south of this gulf was, as above mentioned,
connected with the German continent. At the time
of such a sudden rising in the north and sinking in
the south, I imagine that a mighty mass of water
must have been brought into violent motion and
thrown itself impetuously over the land then existing
between Pomerania and Scania, changing them into
a sea, breaking out through the Sound and the Belts,
raising walls on the Scanian coast and the so-called
* havstokkar ' on the Danish islands ; in a word, mo-
delling the shores to their present configuration, and

it was found, afler a violeDt earthquake, that a long range of
the coast of Chili had been lifled from three to four feet, so that
oysters, limpets, etc., became fixed on stones above the surface
of the sea. In 1819 a long range of land in the delta of the Indus
was raised to the height of ten feet, etc.

Proo& of a sudden sinking are given in Holland. In 1530 an
inundation occurred which carried away seventeen villages, and in
1669 another occurred which deluged the Dutch coast and submerged
a great portion of Friesland. By this inundation of the sea 20,000
people lost their lives. It is plain that this overflow was caused by
a sinking of the land, and that a corresponding rising had taken place
simultaneously in some other place.

During the time of Caesar, Flevus was a lake; in 1225 a large
portion of the country sank, and now it is the broad bay called the
Zuyder Zee. The statue of Hercules which Tacitus speaks of as
standing on the coast has long been sunk in the sea. The Dutch
antiquaries ought not, therefore, to conclude from the absence of
Phoenician monuments that such did not formerly exist there.

264 THE STONE AGE. [Ch. Vn.

lowering numerous peat-bogs to the bottom of the
sea in the southern part of the Baltic, where they now
lie at a depth of from ten to fourteen feet beneath the
surface of the sea.* Likewise a peat-bog under the
Jära-Wall, having a thickness of 10 feet, 2 feet 5 inches
of which lay above, and 7 feet 7 inches below the sur-
face of the sea. The turf under this stone wall is so
compressed, that when dry it is almost as hard as
brown coal; the trees are also, like the layers of
coal, pressed together, and when a fir-chip is broken it
is found to be black and shining in the cross section,
all the results of great pressure and of age. The turf
has here, as in the submarine peat-bogs which lie out-
side Falsterbo, been formed in fresh water, of which
the bottom, when the turf was formed, lay above the
surface of the sea ; inasmuch as in it were found the
same species of shrubs as those that are found in the
other Scanian peat-bogs, situated farther in the inte-
rior of the country. But on the bottom of this peat-
bog, on the fine blue clay itself, there have frequently,
during the cutting of the turf, been found arrows^
kniveSy etc., of flint, which proves that human beings

• The vegetable products which are met with in these submarine
peat-bogs are — stems of the fir, birch, alder, oak, etc., but never
the heech ; numerous moorland plants — Equiseium palustre and
fluviatile, Arundo phragmites, Folygonium amphibium, Calamagrostis^
Ilypnum fiuitana, etc.; the insects also belong to fresh water —
Dytiscus marginalis, a Gyrinu8\ insects attached to moorland plants —
two species of Donacia^ etc., which all prove that the bog was
formed in fresh water, and consequently surrounded bj land. In-
deed, I do not doubt that traces of human workmanship maj likewise
be found here.

CH.Vn.] ANTIQUITY OF PEAT-BOGS. 266

already existed iii these districts at the time when
the bog was an open water, and peat began to grow
in it.

Consequently, there were people here even before
the great phenomenon which raised the ridge in
question, and threw a wide sea between the south
of Scandinavia and the north of Germany. How
many thousands of years have passed since this event,
and from the end of the glacial period until now, we
do not know, but that it did happen during a very an-
cient period we may safely conclude from there being
found under the same ridge, in more than one place,
bones of the cave-bear ; and as such have likewise been
found on the bottom of other peat-bogs with bones of
the reindeer^ for instance, in the peat-bog on KuUa-
berg (in which flint-flakes, PI. II. fig. 24, have also
been found in great numbers), we may suppose that
these peat-bogs are coeval with the one under the
Jära-Wall, and consequently they also are more ancient
than this remarkable ridge. Moreover, it should be
remarked, that in these ancient peat-bogs there has
never been found a vestige of metal, and therefore
we can likewise conclude that the above-mentioned
cataclysm took place during the Stone period, before
bronze had yet been introduced into the North, and
during an early part of the Stone Age, inasmuch as
not a single stone axe or any other ground stone in-
strument was found there, but only flint-flakes, arrows,
and knives.

The tribe which had then migrated to the south
of Sweden came, no doubt, firom more southerly coun-

266 THE STONE AOE. [Cn.^ai.

tries, and it appears that the northern districts of the
country had not yet risen sufficiently from the con-
dition of the glacial epoch, but were in such a state
that they could not be inhabited by man or beast.

But we do not positively know what tribe came
first, for we have not yet found any human skeleton
which can with certainty be said to have belonged to
this ancient period; that is to say, we have not found
any such, under the Jära- Wall or elsewhere, with bones
of the cave-bear. They belonged, however, probably,
to a brachycephalic race ; for skulls of this race have
been found in the old peat-bogs of Scania, and of this
race the Laplanders are the last remnants on our
peninsula. They were wild hunters long before they
became nomads. They were by degrees exterminated
and gradually driven up to the most northerly parts
of the peninsula, by the stronger people belonging to
a dolichocephalic race.

The reindeer appears to have become extinct in
Scania very soon after the separation of Scandi-
navia from North Germany.* The people who
left behind them the celebrated Kjökkenmöddings^
or shell-mounds, most likely lived somewhat after
this period, and hence we can explain why it
is that bones of the reindeer have not been found
in these mounds, though they occur in the peat-
bogs both in Denmark and Scania. But if the
reindeer, which necessarily made extensive migra-
tions annually, died when such migrations were

* It is not even certain that at the time when this catastrophe
happened there were as yet any reindeer in Scania.

Cn-VIL] REMAINS OF URE-OX. 257

no longer possible, the Ure-ox, on the other hand, ap-
pears to have been more enduring ; for a specimen of
this colossal beast, which is preserved in the Museum
at Lund, and had evidently been wounded while young
with a flint weapon, shows that the Urus lived in
Scania during the Stone period* (see PI. XI. figs.
220, 222). This species, indeed, remained here a
longer time, and was stiU to be found during some
part of the Bronze Age, for the war-trumpet of
bronze which is described in my work on the * Bronze
Age,' page 93, and sketched on PI. IV. fig. 50, is
evidently copied fi-om a horn of the Ure-ox.

The people who built the tumuli, and who were a
strong and robust race, had already appeared before
the Bronze people, and during the proper Stone
period. (PI. XIII. figs. 236, 238.) They knew the
use of fire ; they cooked their food, and on their ves-
sels soot is sometimes to be seen. They had perhaps
learned the use of fire from seeing branches in the
wood, ignite from being rubbed i^^ e^ other.
They are said to have had tame cattle, perhaps even
to have practised agriculture. (Figs. 180, 181.)

It was probably during this period that people of
Semitic origin founded colonies in the western coun-
tries of Europe and in the south and west of Scan-
dinavia, where they introduced, besides bronze,f the

* Nay, it appears to have been older in the country than the
cave-bear itself; smaller beasts of prey had probably previously
made their appearance.

f If we wish to tmderstand the phenomenon of the arigiit of
bronze in Scandinavia^ it is quite necessary to realise the fact that
the beet made swords with spiral ornaments and short hilts, as wellaa

258 THE STONE AOE. [Ch. VII.

Phoenician worship of Baal. In the meantime, people
of Cimbrian origin appear to have settled in Denmark
and the southern parts of Sweden. Of them we have
traces both in local names and in certain antiquities ;
for instance, the Cimbrian ox, cast in copper and evi-
dently worn as an amulet.

We have already mentioned that the so-called Jära-
Wall consists of various ridges which were raised
one after the other, and which indicate inundations
that had taken place at different periods. One of
these is called the Cimbrian Flood, because it was
after this inundation that a great number of Cim-
brians emigrated from Scania and Denmark, and were
beaten by Marius near Verona, 101 B.C. Ammianus
Marcellinus relates (book xv. chap. 9) that it was a
tradition amongst the Druids that some of their fore-
fathers had come from the farthest islands on the
other side of the Rhine, and that frequent attacks
by the neighbouring tribes and an inundation of the
sea were the first cause of their marching southwards.

Even during my time there were traditions about
them in Scania, where it is said they assembled before
the emigration on a plain which, during my youth,
was still a heath, and called the Cimber Ground,
situated between the villages of Gislof, Aby, Isie, and

the small armlets, are the oldest^ and that the workmanship hj
degrees became more and more deteriorated. The supposition that
the oldest are the worst and that the bronze culture here has been
more and more developed and improved, is founded on ignorance, or,
still worse, on an unrestrained national vanity. It is painful to no-
tice that several eminent authors of classical works have expressed
this erroneous opinion.

Ch.VIL] immigration of swedes. 250

the Baltic. The name of Cimbrishamn is likewise
supposed to be derived from this circumstance.

By. degrees the Scandinavian peninsula assumed its
present appearance, boundaries, and people. The last
immigration consisted of the Swedes, who brought
with them the worship of Odin's Walhalla ; but this
period belongs to the Iron Age.

» I

NOTES BY THE EDITOR.

Note 1 , p(tge 4.

Sir £. Belcher, in his paper ' On Works of Art among the fiaqui-
maux ' (* Transactions of the Ethnological Society/ Ser. 2, vol. i.
page 139), gives the following account of the implement with which
that ingenious people make their flint tools. The handle, he says,
' is of fine fossil ivoiy. That would be too soft to deal with flint or
chert in the manner required. But they discoyered that the point
of the deer-horn is harder, and also more stubborn ; therefore, in
a slit, like lead in our pencils, they introduced a slip of this sub-
stance, and secured it by a strong thong, put on wet^ but which on
diying becomes very rigid. Here we cannot £ul to trace ingenuity,
ability, and a view to ornament. It is the point of deer-horn
which, refusing to yield, drives off the fine conchoidal splinters firom
the chert.'

Note 2, page 40.

I confess it seems to me that the difference here pointed out is
a matter of age and use. As the blade wore down, it was re-sharp-
ened, and thus became shorter and shorter.

Note 3, page 53.

See also Judges xx. 16. 'Among all this people' (the tribe
of Benjamin) ' there were seven hundred chosen men leflhanded ;
every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.'

Note 4, page 63.

I have in my collection an almost exactly similar ax^ from
Central Africa ; but the blade is of iron, and has rather straighter
sides.

202 THE STOXE AGE.

Note 5, page 105.

I need hardly aay that many of our most emment biologifto
would demur to this proposition.

Note 6, page 137.

Very similar dwelling-places occur in Scotland. Mr. Petrie has
described one examined by him in the Orkneys. See Captain
Thomas, ' On Orkney Antiquities ^ (* Archeologia,* y. 34). A hollow
was scooped out of the side of a hill, and walls were built of unhewn
stones, converging towards the top. On the outside, smaller stones
and earth were heaped up, so that the whole building had the
appearance of a conical mound, about 115 feet in length and 55 in
breadth. The central chamber, which was surrounded hy sereral
smaller ones, was about 40 feet long, 5 feet broad, and 10 feet high
in the centre, communicating with the outside by a long, low, narrow
passage, 18 feet long and 2 feet 8 inches high. Semisubterranean
huts of this character are known in Sotland as 'weema,' from
uamha, a cave. Several such, more or less subterranean, dwellings
are described in the ^ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland * (see, for instance, vol. iii. Part II. page 189), and Captain
Thomas has figured (/. c. vol. iii. Part XII.) a group of ^ beehive
houscH* in Lewis, which are still actually inhabited. These, howerer,
are entirely above ground.

Note 7, page 141.

My friend Mr. Boyd Dawkins, in his memoir on the ' British
Fossil Oxen ' (* Geological Journal,' No. XCI. page 183), boldly
asserts that the cave-men of Perigord were ' a people more closely
allied to the Esquimaux than any other,' and sums up as follows the
evidence in £ivour of this assertion.

* The identity of four of the harpoons, or fowling-spears, marrow-
spoons, and scrapers; the habit of sculpturing animals on their
implements ; the absence of pottery ; the same method of crushing
the bones of the animals slain in hunting, and their accumulation
in one spot; the carelessness about the remains of their dead
relatives ; the i&ct that the food consisted chiefly of reindeer,
varied with their flesh of other animals, such as the musk-sheep ;
and especially the small stature, as proved in the people of the

NOTES BY THE EDITOR. 263

Dordogne cavemB, by the small-haiidled dagger figured by MM.
Lartet and Christy in the " Revue Archéologique " and in " Pre-
historic Times," p. 255. This combination of characterg is found,
BO far as I know, among no other people on the face of the earth
except the Esquimaux ; and therefore I cannot help believing that
this people in South Gaul occupies the same relation to the Esqui-
maux as the musk-sheep and reindeer, on which they lived, hold
to those now living in the northern regions.'

Since this was written Mr. Bu^k has shown that the Ursus prisons
of our caves is undistinguishable from the Grizzly bear of the Rocky
mountains. There is therefore some reason for the belief that the
Esquimaux once inhabited Western Europe.

Note S,page 161.

If the coexistence of ground and unground flint implements
suggests doubts as to the division of the Stone Age into Palaeolithic
and Neolithic, ä fortiori the very frequent occurrence of stone imple-
ments with those of bronze would compel us to ^ve up the Stone
Age altogether. The lesson, however, which such cases teach us is
that of caution, not of doubt.

No one knows better than Professor Nilsson that every flint
implement was rudely chipped out before it was ground, and some
of them, as, for instance, arrows, were never ground. Moreover, the
Paleolithic Age is not characterised only by the rudeness of the
Btone implements ascribed to it.

The absence of pottery, the presence of extinct animals, and the
nature of the strata in which the implements occur, must all be
taken into consideration. I have, however, already referred to these
points in my Introduction.

NoTK 9, page 181.

Heame does not, I think, deserve this severe reproach. We
must remember that he was the only white man among this band of
ferocious savages ; that he was completely at their mercy, being far
from any settlement, and Imd already suflered much ill-treatment at
their hands. Any interference on his part would evidently have
b(*en useless, and the language in which he expresses his horror at
the massacre is as strong even as that of Professor Nilsson : ' Even
at this hour,^ he concludes, ^ I cannot reflect on the transactiona of

2(54 THE STONE AGE.

that horrid day without shedding tears/ It is £i.ir also to remember
that Hearne was not a man who used strong language lightly.
When some northern Indians met him on his return to the Fort,
and plundered him of almost everything he had, he remarks quietly^
that his load being thereby * materially lightened, this part of my
journey was the easiest and most pleasant of any I had experienced
since my leaving the Fort.'

Note 10, page 215.

Professor Nilsson alludes probably to the Scotch proverb, * Curri
in I clach er do cuim,' i. e. I will add a stone to your cairn.

Note 11, page 220.

The Norwegian peasants were not alone in regarding the Lap-
landers as scarcely human. Regnard, in his ^ Journey to Lapland,*
thus concludes his account of them: — *Such is the description of
this little animal, caUed a Laplander ; and it may safely be said that^
after the monkey, he approaches nearest to man.' When Frobisher'a
crew, in 1576, captured an old Esquimaux woman, they took her for
a witch, and pulled off her boots to see if she had cloven feet. It ia
not necessary, however, to go so far afield for illustrations. Down
to the last century, and even now in out-of-the-way places, old
women were regarded as witches, even by their own countrymen
and countrywomen.

Note 12, page 251.

This alteration of the surface does, no doubt, indicate a certain
lapse of time, and is a very good evidence of genuineness. I have,
however, some reason for thinking that, under certain circumstances,
the process is not one requiring any great lapse of time.

— \

INDEX.

AFR

AFRICA, the so-caUed dolmens
of, 160
^ Agriculture; in what it probably

originally consistedy 74
,/^ Amazon axe, 71

Amber omamentS; 82

— buttons, 83
Amulets, stone, 200, 214

— life-stones and yictory-stones,
216

— worship of, 242
Anakim, ihe, of Scripture, 290
AuTil, 80.

Archteology, present condition of, z
Argippseans, the, of Herodotus,
identical with the Baschkirs of
the Ural mountains, 191
Arrows, long and short, 43

— arrow-points without a tang, 44

— square-edged, 76

— rough-edged, 77

— flint arrows used by the Egyp-
tians, 191 note

— bone- and stone-tipped arrows of
the Laplanders, 196

— property of the Guse arrows,
198

— and of other magic arrows, 199
Asa-hog, tumulus of the, 130, 148

— mode of interring the dead in
thifl tumulus, 131

BUT

Asar, their introduction of the
worship of Odin into Scandin*

avia, 237

Askovis, the, 228

Augers, 78

Aurignac, primeval human remains

at, 127
Awls, 91
Axes, implements, not weapons, 94

— conjectures as to the symbolical
meaning of flint axes, 99

— see dUo Hatchets
Axeyalla, tumulus of, 126

BALEARIC islanders, their use
of the sling, 63

Baschkirs, identical with the Argip-
pseans of Herodotus, 191

Battle-axes, 76

Beads, stone, 81

•— glass, 82

Bison, the, its deadly enmity to
tame cattle, 249

Boats of the Scandinavians, 101

Bråvalla Plain, weapons used in the
battle of, 194

Bronze Age, conclusions respecting
the, XXX

— not mentioned in history, 192

Buttons, amber. 83

206

INDEX.

BCT

Buttons of the aboriginal Scandi-
navians, 102

pAIRNS, pagan, in Sweden, 216
^ notes

— practice of adding a stone to a
cairn, 215, 204

Carpenter's tools, 63

— implements without a Hole in
the handle, 63

chisels, 63

hatchets, or axes, 60

— implements provided with a bole
for the handle, 68

— — hammers, 60

bammer-axes, 60

Caucasus, cavem-dweUings of pri-
mitive man in the, 163, 164*

Cavern-dwellings of man, 161, 166

— remains of cavern-dwellings in
Lapland, 212

— the * weems ' of Scotland, 262

— the cave-men of Perigord, 202
Cavern-sepulchres, 154
Chamel-vaults, 160

— of Äsagrafven, 101

Chase, manner in which weapons of

the, are used by savages, 160
Chisels, 63

— narrow square, 64

— .. stone chisels, 64

— narrow hollow chisel, or gouge,
66

— with handles, 66

— broad square chisel, 68

— braad gouge, 68

— ice-chisel, 77
Cimbrian immigration —

— the Cimbrian march southwards,
and defeat by Marius, 268

— the Cimbrian immigration into
Denmark and Southern Sweden,
258

Circassian bouses and tombs, 166

DWA

Circumcision, stone knives used by

the Jews in, 07
Clay, burnt, vessels of, 84

— of the Scandinavians, 102
Clothes of the aboriginal Scandi-
navians, 102

Crania of the ancient and modem
Scandinavians compared, 106 ei

— RetziuA*s classification, 107

— Swedish typical cranium, 108

— crania of Swedes and Goths, 116

— skull discovered in shell-beds,
116

— at Malta, 117

— skulls found in West Gothland,
118

— skulls of the Laplanders, 120

— synoptical view of the crania
described, 123

Cromlechs, the, of England, 160
Crimea, tombs of the modem Greeks

in the, 165
Cyclopes of Homer, their cavern-
dwellings, 163

T\EAD, modes of the Esquimaux

^ and Baschkiers in buiying the,
133, 134

Denmark, anciently inhabited by
Laplanders, 201

-- the Cimbrian immigration into,
258

Dog, the, of the aboriginal Scandi-
navians, 103

— skulls of dogs buried with chil-
dren, 140

Dolmens of France, 150

— so*caUed dolmens of Africa, 160
Dös, the, of Sweden, 150
Dwarfs of the Sngas, who they

were, 207

— their power of rendering them-
selves invisible, 217

INDEX.

207

DWA

GAL

Dwarfe, compariflon between the
dwarfs of ancient times and the
Laplanders of the present dayy210

DweUing-houses of the aborigines^
their similarity to the gallery-
graves, 181—143

— description of one near the Bay
of Skar, 143

— and at Glumslöf, 146

— with round, oval, and oblong
square chambers, 148, 161

— huts of the Skroelingar in Win-
land, 161

— the mountain cavem man's first
dwelling, 163

— houses of heaped-up stones or
timber, 164

— dwellings of the first visitors to
the frigid zones of the earth, 160

— gallery-dwellings, 167
Dyss, the, of Denmark, 169

EARTH'S crust, motion of the,
taking place in Scandinavia,
246, 261

— the Jara-Wall, 262

— sudden risings and sinkings of
the earth's crust, 262

Egyptians, their use of stone knives
in circumcision, 97

— flint arrows used by them, 191
note

Esquimaux, shape of the crania of
the, 107, 108

— similarity of their winter huts
to the tumuli of Scandinavia,
132, 133

— their snow-huts, 138

— their throwing-boards for giving
velocity to their spears, 173

— murder of the Esquimaux on the
Copper-mine river by the Indians,
177

— regarded as sorcerers by the In-
dians, 187, 204, 208

Esquimaux, Sir R Belcher's account

of the manufacture of their flint

tools, 201
— probably once inhabited Western

Europe, 203
Ethiopians, arms and accoutrements

of the, in the time of Xerxes, 176

piNNS (Fenni), their arms in the
-^ time of Tacitus, 190

— Tacitus* account of them, 221
Fire-worship, conjectural remains

of a primeval, 99
Fish-hook of shell, 21

— of wood, with bone-pointy 21

— of flint, 22

— fish-hooks not weapons, but im-
plements, 93

Fishing, implements for, 21

— fish-hooks, 21

— fishing-plummets, 24

— harpoons, 20

— spears, 33

— mode o^ of the Scandinavians,
102

— fishing weights implements, not
weapons, 93

Flint implements of the Palaeolithic
age, xvii

— and Neolithic period, xxv

— how formed, 6
Flint-flakefl, 70

Flood, the Cimbrian, 268

GALLERY-GRAVES, form of
skull found in the, in West
Gothland, 118

— description of gallery-graves,124^
169

— question as to their having been
dwelling-houses, 131, 132

— implements found in gallery-
graves, 169

— one at Hammer, 101

2iW

INDEX.

GAL

Gallery -graveAythose in West Goth-
land, and at Luttra, 102

— examination of the opinion that
they were ossuaries, 162, 1(V)

— huts with round chambers; 14d

— with oval chambers, 151

— with obloug square chambers,
151

— gallery-houses of Scania and
AVest Gothland, 158

Germans, terror of the Romans

under Csesar of the giant, 222
Germany, weapons of war of iron

in the time of Tacitus, 105
Giants of the ancient Saga. See

Jotnar
Gimlets, 78
Glass beads, 82
Glass-blowing, infancy of, 83
Glumslöf, ancient dwelling-house

at, 145
Gothland, West, skulls found in,

118

— gallery-tombs in, 162
Goths, crania of, 1 15

Gouge, the, or narrow hollow chisel,
55

— broad, 58

Greece, cavern-dwellings of, 163
Greeks, modem, their tombs in the

Crimea, 155
G use arrows, property of the, 1Ö8

TTALLSTADT, discoveries in the
""^ graves at the salt-mines of,

xxxvi.
Hammer, gallery-tomb at, 161
Ilammer-axes, 69
Hammers, 60
Hammer-stones, orchipping-stones,

— found in various plsces, 12
Harpoons for fishing, 26

— with immovable points, 27

— of bone, 29

IBO

Harpoons with movable pcnnts, 31

— harpoons implements, not wea-
pons, 03

Hatchets, or axes, 00

— cross-axe, 60

with a flat chipped edge only

on one side, 60, 61
with edge ground on botii

sides, but more on one than on

the other, 62

— straight axes, 63

— hammer axes, 69

— Amazon axe, 71

— helved wedges, 72

— battle-axes, 75
IIittites,their cavem-0epulchie8yl54

Hoes, 73

Hölingen, the ancient dwelling*

house of, 143
Hunting, implements for, 21

— manner in which the aborigines
made use of their implements,
169

Huts of the aborigines, 103. See
Dwelling-houses ; Gallery-huts.

TCE-CHISEL, 77
-"- Implements of stone not neces*
sarily weapons, 92

— materials of early implements,
100

— resemblance between the stone
implements of nations of dififexent
tribes, 103

Indians of North America, their
ossuaries, 162

— their murder of the Esquimaux
on the Copper-mine river, 177

— regard the Esquimaux as sor-
cerers, 187

Instincts, human and brute, 104,

105
Iron Age, observations on the,

xxxviii

— the, mentioned in ancient history,
192

INDEX.

209

JAR

MIS

TÄRA-WALL, probable cause of
^ the, 262
Javelins, 46

— flint, 46

— bird-javelin of the Greenlanders,
48

— mode of using the, in the chase,
169, 170

— javelin of bone in a skull, 172

— how this missile was fixed to
the shaft, 172

Jews, their use of stone knives in
circumdsion, 97

— their tombs, 164, 166

Jotnar, or giants, of the ancient
Saga, 226, 234

— origin of the notion of giants,
228

— the Anakim of Scripture, 230

— the German grants under Ario-
dstus, 232

T7JÖKKENMÖDDINGS, or
■*^ shell-mounds, 266
Knives, hunting, 88

— of flint, 39

— cutting-knives, 40

— semilimar, 41

— ^^knife and saw, 42

— knives implements, not weapons,
93,96

— stone knives used bj the Jews
in circumcision, 97

— and by the Egyptians in the
process of embalming, 97

— flint knives in use among the
Phoenicians, Bomans, and Scan-
dinavians, 97, 98

T AKE-DWELLINGS, Swiss,
•^ zxvii

Laplanders, shape of the crania of
the, 107, 108

Laplanders, their weapons of war In
the time of Tacitus, 196

— formerly spread over Sweden,
Denmark, and other places, 201

— Lapland local names remaining
in Sweden, 202

— proofs that the dwarfs and pig-
mies of the Sagas were Lap-
landers, 207

— their skill in sorcery, 209

— remains of their ancient cavern-
dwellings, 212

— their modem houses, 212

— their late use of stone imple-
ments, 213

— their character at the present
day, 218

— comparison between the Lap-
landers of to-day and the dwarfs
of ancient times, 219, 224

— Tacitus' account of the Fenni,
219, 220

— as shown in the Sagas, 222

— their notions as to giants, 228
Leister, or fish-spear, 33
Letters, probable invention of, Ixvii.

note

— no evidence of their being known
to the aboriginal Scandinavians.
103

Life-stones, ancient, 216
Luttra, gallery-tomb near, 162

— Baron von Diiben's description,
166

TlfALTA, ancient cranium found

■^ at, 117

Men, the word, applied by all rude
nations only to themselves, 211

Metals, no evidence of the use of,
among the aboriginal Scandi-
navians, 103

Missiles used by the ancients in
war, 173

— of the Esquimaux, 173

— of the New Hollanders, 174, noU

270

INDEX.

NAT

SCR

RATIONS, stages through which '

-^^ they must pass before attainiDg
their highest social deTelopment,
Ixiv

Neolithic Age, conclusions respect-
ing the, xxiii.

Norway, weapons used in, in 1030,
103

^ remnants of Thor worship in
Norway at the present day, 241,
242

OATH, Phoenician mode of taking
an, 08 I

Odin, sacrificial knives used in the j
worship of, 06, 08

— human sacrifices offered to, 08 i

— worship of, in Scandinavia, 237 |
Ornaments, 82

Orvar Odd, the viking, his ad-
ventures in liuneland, 107

Ossuaries of the North American
Indians, 162

— examination of the opinion that
the gallery-tombs of Scandinavia
were ossuaries, 163

PALEOLITHIC Age, condu-
''- sions respecting the, zii
Peat-bogs under the surface of the
sea, 253, 254

— their antiquity, 266

Pigmies of the Sagas, who they

were, 207. Ä» Dwarfs
PhoBnicians, their use of flint knives

in religious ceremonies, 07, 08
Plummets, fishing, 24

— stone-beads for, 81

Pottery, hand-made, of the Stone

Age, xxix
Punch, 80 ^ .

T>EINDEER^ extinct in Scania
■'■*' soon after* the separation of
Scandinavia from North Ger-
many, 256

Religious implements of stone, 07
Romans, flint knives used by the
08

OACRIFICES, human, of the
^ worshippers of Odin, 08
Sagas, the secular and religious,
205

— view of the Sagas firom an his-
torical, not sMthetic, point of
view, 206

— enquiry as to the dwarfs and
pigmies of the Sagas, 207

— the Sagas founded in history,
242, 243

Savages, relation between, of dif-
ferent races and tribes, 187

— their hereditary hatred of each
other, 180

Saws, 80

Scandinavia, arms and accoutre-
ments of the people of, 175

— formerly peopled by the Lap-
landers, 201

— Scandinavian source of tradition,
205

— remnants of pagan worship, 206

— introduction of Thor worship
into, 236

— and of the Walhalla worship,
237

— probable condition of Scandi-
navia at the arrival of the first
people, 244

— possible cause of its physical
changes, 245, 251

— shell-banks and fossil shells, 247

— uncertainty as to the time of the
arrival of man, 251

— implements found in the peat-
bogs, 264, 265

-- Phoenician and Cimbrian immi-
grations, 268
Scotland, the ' weems ' of, 262
Scrapers, 76

INDEX.

271

TOM

Shell-bankfl and foaail shella of
Scandinavia, 247

Shell-bedSy crania found in^ 116^
117

Shell-moundsy the, xxiri. 2oO

Siberia, the cayem-dwellinga of,
153

Skar, Bay of, ancient dwelling-
house in the, 145

Skroelingar, huta of the, in Win-
land, 151. See Dwarfs

Slings, 40

— wooden and ribbon, 40, 50
Sling-stones, 26, 40
Snow-huts of the Esquimaux, 138
Sorcery, the Polar tribes believed

to be skilled in, 187, 204, 207
Spears, fish, 33

— flint, 35

— of bone, 37

— of iron, 37

— not necessarily weapons of war,
04

Stege, tumuli near, 120
Stenshögen, tumulus of, 148
Sticklerstad, Weapons found on the

battle-field of, 103
Stone ago of different nations,

101

— great antiquity of stone weapons,
101—106

— superstitions of the peasantry as
to the inherent magic power of
stone implements, 100

Stone implements, not weapons,

02
Stone vessels, 84
Stretching implements, 77
Superstitions as to stone implements

and weapons, 100, 200

— what superstition is, 205
Sweden, different tribes of people

in, at different times, 201

— Laplanders, 201

— pagan cairns and Christian crosses
in, 214, note

Sweden, remnants of Thor worship
in Sweden at the present day,
240, 241

— state of the country at the ar-
rival of the first people, 240

— uncertainty as to the ^me of
their arrival, 251

— the Cimbrian immigration into
the South, 258

— the immigration of the Swedes,
250

Swedes, crania of the, 108

— crania of, compared with those
of the Goths, 116

Swords, the, mentioned in the Ed-
das and ancient Sagas, 105

— bronze swords, xxv.

TARTARS, their tombs in Kasan,
155
Thor, the gigantic tribe who wor-
shipped, 234

— the name still used at the pre-
sent day, 235

— Thor worship, 235

— his conflicts with goblins and
pigmies, 236

— remnants of the worship in
Sweden and Norway at the pre-
sent day, 240—224

Thormodr Eolbrunnarskald, his

death, 103, 104
Thor*s hammer, Mjolner, 72
Throwing-board of the Esquimaux,

173

— and of the New Hollanders, 174
note

— the throwing-strap of the New
Caledonians, New Zealand ers, and
Romans, 174 note

Thursday, superstitions respecting,

in Sweden, 240, 241
Tombs of the stone age, 124
— passage-graves, or gallery-gravea,

124

Ä72

INDEX.

TOM

Tombe, architecture of theae prime-
val burial-houaea, 125

— their names in Tarioua piaceSy
125

— their form and sice, 126

— double gallerj-grayes, IdO

— similarity of the winter huts of
the Esquimaux to the tumuli of
Scandinayia, 132, 133

— half-cross tombsi 147

— cavern-sepulchres, 154

— tombs of the Jews and modem
Greeks, 154, 155

~ gallery-graves, 118, 124, 159

— the doe, dyss, cromlech, or dol-

men, 159

— chaniel-vaults, IdO

Trull, meaning of the word, 239
note

Tumuli of the ancient Scandi-
navians. See Tombs

— of the Neolithic period, xxviL
Tygelsjö, human remains and war-
like missiles found at, 175, 176

TTPSALA, Odin's temple at, 238
^ Ure-ox, skeleton of the, 169
— enmity of the Ure-ox and bison,
249

WHI

Ure-0X| period of its existence in
Scania, 257

VESSELS of burnt clay, or stone,
84
Victory-fltones, andent, 215

TXT ALHALLA worship, introduc-

^^ tion of, into Scandinavia, 237

War, mode in which weapons of,

are used by savages, 171
Weapons of war, iron and steel,

found on the field of Sticklerstad,

193

— great antiquity of stone weapons,
193—195

— the iron weapons of the Gothic
races of Germany and Scandi-
navia, 195

Wedges, helved, 72

— the haftéd wedge not necessarily
a weapon, but an implement, 96

< Weems ' of Scotland, 262

Whet-stones, 10, 16

Winland, huts of the Skroelingar

in, 151
Whistie, hunting, 80

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Full text of "The primitive inhabitants of Scandinavia. An essay on comparative ethnography, and a contribution to the history of the development of mankind: containing a description of the implements, dwellings, tombs, and mode of living of the savages in the north of Europe during the stone age"

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